


You're Worth The Fight

by TheScottRyder



Series: Coryder Collection [1]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Minor or Background Characters - Freeform, One Shot Collection, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2018-10-15 19:06:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 44,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10556172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheScottRyder/pseuds/TheScottRyder
Summary: Collection of one-shot prompt fills about Scott Ryder and Cora Harper~Ratings will vary and warnings are posted for each individual chapter.





	1. Wearing Their Clothes

**Author's Note:**

> Rating: SFW  
> Prompt: Wearing Their Clothes

\-----

Scott hated Voeld.

No, that wasn't entirely accurate.. He loved the people of Voeld. He loved watching the rippling lights in the sky now that the vaults had been restored to working order, and of course he loved skidding across the ice in the Nomad while his companions tried to yell at him over the volume of his own laughter. He ignored their pleas for him to just 'stick to the roads for once', and  in turn they ignored his cries for mercy as they shoved snow into the back of his armor in retaliation. Fair trade.

He liked Voeld, but what he didn’t like was how long it took him to shake off the biting cold after every visit. It always clung to him, even once he was back in the nice, warm Tempest, and today proved to be no exception. They'd left Voeld almost a half hour ago but he still felt that familiar chill in his body, and right now the t-shirt he wore just wasn’t doing enough for him. This was a job for his hoodie..

Scott endures the cold for a few more minutes, just long enough to check his e-mail terminal and send out a few replies, before he makes his way through his ship and down to the lower levels, intent on retrieving the warm and beloved garment from the Pathfinder’s quarters.

Jak-Jak perks his head up as the door slides open, chirping curiously, but then relaxes as soon as he recognizes his owner, and Scott smiles at the young pyjak curls back up against his pillow. He's asleep again within seconds, and Scott moves quietly to avoid disturbing his pet any further as he searches through his belongings, finding a couple of old initiative shirts that were rarely worn and a few misplaced socks that he’d thought were long gone.

But over ten minutes of searching ends with exactly zero hoodies turning up and, after double-checking Jak-Jak’s favorite hiding spots to make sure that he hadn't stashed it away while left to his own devices, Scott retreats from his room and heads towards cargo bay, waving down Gil just as the man comes out of the engineering wing.

“Hey, Gil. You haven’t by chance seen my hoodie have you? It’s playing hide-and-seek with me and I’m about to lose my winning streak.”

“That black and blue one you’re always wearin’?” Gil asks, prompting a nod of affirmation from Scott. “Yeah, Cora had it on earlier, and I think she was heading to the galley.”

_Suspect identified._

“Thanks Gil,” Scott says with a nod before spinning on his heel, heading back in the direction that he'd just come from, and making a beeline for the galley, and he pauses in the doorway as the door slides open with a soft hiss.

The galley was empty aside from Cora, who sat at the table on one of the booth seats, a data pad in her hand, a half-finished cup of coffee in front of her, and, sure enough, she was wearing a very familiar ( and in her case very over-sized ) hoodie.

_Suspect confirmed._

She doesn’t look up from whatever report she was reading and so Scott spends a moment looking her over, taking in the way the hoodie was bunched up around her waist along with the fact that she’d apparently had to roll the edge of the sleeves back to use the data pad. Scott can’t help but grin. She looked adorable..

“So, I just heard a rumor from an anonymous source that someone stole my favorite hoodie from my room, and now they’re just walking around and flaunting it,” Scott says in lieu of an actual greeting, closing the distance between the two of them in a few steps and stopping to stand in front of the table, arms folded over his chest. “Cora, you’re my loyal and honest second-in-command. You haven’t seen any suspicious, hoodie-wearing felons passing through, have you?”

“First of all, your anonymous source, probably named Gil, doesn’t have very reliable intel because the hoodie was left in here, not in your room,” Cora replies, not looking up from her data pad, but she wasn’t bothering to hide the smile on her face from him. “Second of all, finders keepers.”

“What? You can’t call finders keepers on someone else’s stuff!”

“Actually I can because that’s the entire logic behind ‘finders keepers’. Didn’t you grow up with a sibling?”

“Aha! So you confess that the hoodie you’re wearing isn’t actually yours?” Scott says with an unnecessary amount of triumph in his voice, bracing a hand on the table and leaning forward as if to interrogate her.

“I’ve confessed to nothing,” Cora replies, still smiling as she tilts her head back to look up at him. “But if I did just what would you-”

Her words quickly trail off as Scott leans forward to presses a soft kiss to her lips, his mouth just barely brushing hers, and he only puts more energy behind it after she starts to reciprocate. Cora hums softly against his lips and Scott holds the kiss for a few beats longer before drawing back, matching her warm smile with one of his own.

“Hope that’s not how you end your arguments with everyone else.”

“Hey, if you steal my hoodie it’s only fair that I get to steal a kiss.” Scott grins before pressing his lips to hers once more, and Cora narrows her eyes in a mock-glare after he pulls away.

“One hoodie equals one kiss, pal.”

“Fair enough, but you stole my heart too. I think I’ve got a lot of kisses to cash in for that.”

“..Scott, I love you, but sometimes you’re just the worst.”

“Mm-hmm, and you bring out the best of my worst.”

“You’re awful.” Cora shakes her head, a light blush on her face now, and Scott grins again before turning and dropping down onto the booth beside her. Cora immediately moves to lean closer and Scott slips his arms around her shoulder to pull her snug against him, letting out a soft, content sigh through his nose as she settles against his side.

“I can probably get you your own hoodie next time we’re at the Nexus,” Scott comments quietly, leaning down to nuzzle his cheek against the top of his lover’s head. “Maybe even a size bigger than mine. You look so cute wearing that one already.”

“I like this one more. It.. smells like you. Makes it easier when I don’t tag along.” Cora replies, her eyes sliding shut as she rests her head against his shoulder. Scott feels that familiar warmth stirring in his chest at her words, and he wonders if she knew how easy it was to make him fall just a little more in love with her. “Really though, did you want it back now?”

“Nah,” Scott hums, closing his eyes and enjoying the quiet moment between the two of them. “I’d say I’m warm enough now.”

\-----


	2. Patching up a Wound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: SFW. Mild mentions of blood and wound descriptions.  
> Prompt: Patching up a Wound

\-----

“Can’t believe I’m gonna lose my arm to some giant gecko in a desert!”

“You’re only going to lose something if you don’t hold still,” Cora huffs, holding Scott’s injured limb up at an elevated angle and gesturing for him to keep it up as she retrieves one of the spare water bottles from her pack. No doubt someone would scold them later for using one of their emergency water rations. Sure, there was a spring nearby, but she wasn’t putting anything on this planet near an open wound until the restored vaults had more time to heal Kadara and its polluted water.

Scott watches her as she works, his brow furrowing a little as she gently pulls the cracked gauntlet off of his right wrist, and she frowns as she looks over the bleeding limb, trying to take in just how much damage the adhi’s teeth had done before Scott had managed to shake the creature off. The puncture wounds dotting his arm were still oozing a bit of blood, but she was glad to see that it wasn’t nearly as bad as she’d initially feared. Torn muscles and broken bones would’ve meant a hasty return to the Tempest, not a quick patch job in the field.

“Tell me, just how bad is it, doc? Am I a goner? Will I ever fly a cruiser again?” Scott asks with exaggerated fear in his voice, earning himself an eye roll from Cora and a quiet scoff from Vetra, who was still rooting through the area for any valuables or salvage that the now-dead Roekarr might have had in their camp.

“Well his sense of humor’s still intact but I’m not sure if that’s good or bad,” Vetra comments lightly, heading away from them after rummaging through a nearby stack of crates and finding nothing of interest.

Scott just grins at the retreating turian before he looks back at Cora, and then down at his bleeding arm. He says nothing and gave no real signs of discomfort, but his grin does falter, and Cora could feel the faint shaking in his arm. It didn’t surprise her, no matter how much he tried to play off the pain he had to be in. Those adhi had a nasty bite.

“It’s not too deep, at least.” Cora says to reassure him, pulling the torn fabric away from the bitten area before pouring some of the water onto the wound, and Scott hisses through his teeth as it washes away some of the blood. "You got lucky. Looks like your poor gauntlet took most of the damage.“

"Aw, does that mean no cool scars for me?” Scott asks, flashing her a grin as she retrieves a roll of fresh gauze from Lexi’s emergency medic bag. “I hear that lots of ladies dig cool scars. Would’ve given me a hot bad boy persona.”

“Actually ladies dig it more when someone actually _listens_ to their warnings about an adhi flanking them, instead of just charging in like a trigger-happy rookie.” Cora replies promptly, if not a bit curtly.

Scott’s playful grin immediately falls into a sheepish expression, and for a moment she almost feels bad for scolding him. He looks so much like a kicked puppy when he makes that face, but of course Cora won’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that she thought that, nor did she wanted him to just brush off what could have been a serious injury.

There’s no witty retort from Scott this time, only a stretch of silence between the two of them as Cora finishes cleaning the wound and then wraps the gauze around his forearm, only glancing up from her work when Scott lets out another soft hiss of discomfort, but a loose bandage on an open wound in a place like Kadara was the last thing anyone needed. Still, she flashes him an apologetic look, one that Scott returns with that smile of his, and Cora feels the unexpected tension starting to fade away.

“It’s less likely to get infected now but you’ll still need to go see Lexi once we’re back on the Tempest, get some proper treatment for this,” Cora says, giving Scott’s shoulder a light pat to let him know that he could lower his arm now, and he flexes his fingers as she tucks the remaining medical supplies back into the bag. “Could’ve been a lot worse.”

“Sorry,” Scott suddenly mumbles, rubbing at his wrist as if it were sore and causing Cora to look over at him again. His sheepish expression has become closer to guilty now, and Cora tries not to frown when he glances at her but doesn’t fully meet her gaze. “You’re right, I should’ve listened. I’ll.. pay more attention next time, okay?”

“Okay,” Cora agrees, perplexed, and she finds herself trying to guess what was going through his mind at that moment. It wasn’t often that Scott didn’t just laugh off his mistakes, or even the mistakes of others, and the sudden somber look on his face was a little worrying. “Are _you_ okay, Scott?”

“Yeah, still stings a little but nothing I can’t ignore ‘til we get some medi-gel on it.”

“You know I’m not talking about the bite.”

“I’m fine,” Scott argues weakly, but when she gives him a firm, pointed look he just sighs, reaching up with his non-injured arm to rub a hand against the back of his neck. “Okay, maybe I’m not fine, but.. I really am sorry. I know I can be a little reckless in a fight, but I’ll try to do better. Screw up a little less.”

Something about his tone.. She didn’t think he was talking about the battle anymore. Not entirely, at least.

"Look,” Cora starts after letting that unusual silence between them linger for a moment longer, “Battles can be unpredictable, and we both know that lot can change in an instant, especially against new enemies in uncharted territory. I’m not saying that you can’t or shouldn’t make any mistakes in a fight, Scott, I just want you to be more careful. I don’t like seeing you get hurt.”

“I know.” Scott smiles at her again, and it’s still not his usual smile but at least it’s a little more genuine this time. “I meant what I said though, about fighting smarter. Not much point in dragging an experienced huntress around with me if I’m not going to take her advice, right?”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Cora replies honestly, and though she really was glad that he seemed to be serious about taking her advice there was just still something off about him. She didn’t like it. She’d gotten to know Scott pretty well by now, and this kind of behavior just wasn’t him. “But I still feel like I should ask: Is there something else bothering you?”

The fact that he winces a little at her question is all the confirmation she needs.

Scott sighs again, opens his mouth to speak, but before any words come out something flashes through his eyes, something Cora didn’t like yet couldn’t identify, but whatever it was has Scott hesitating before he promptly closes his mouth and just shakes his head with another one of those small, forced smiles.

"I’ll.. tell you about it some other time, when we’re not likely to be jumped by another wave of Roekarr.” It’s not a satisfying answer but it’s one she can respect. “For now we need to put some distance between us and these bodies.”

“Good idea.” Cora agrees, straightening up and slinging the medic back over her shoulder and starting back towards the Nomad, where Vetra was already packed up and waiting for them. “We should head back to the slums again before we leave and let Reyes know what went down here.”

“Cora, wait,” Scott suddenly says, getting to his feet as she turns back around to face him. He strides forward to close the distance between them, stopping once they were less than a foot apart, and his expression is a little more intense than she’d expected. She watches him wordlessly, seeing a myriad of emotions going through those bright blue eyes of his, and it seems like a thousand things are on the tip of his tongue but none of them are coming out.

“Scott?”

“I just wanted to ask you..” Scott starts, trails off, and before she can speak again he suddenly raises his bandaged arm up towards her with a grin. “Will you kiss it better?”

\-----


	3. Straddling Their Lap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T  
> Prompt: ‘Straddling their lap and holding their face to yours for a deep kiss.’

\-----

The sound of the door sliding open doesn’t really catch Cora’s attention. It’s the deep and uncharacteristic sigh right after that causes her to look up from her e-mails to see Scott storming into the room. She recognizes the expression on his face; he’d just finished another video call with Director Tann, his self-proclaimed least favorite salarian in the entirety of Andromeda ( and yes, Scott had frequently stressed, that did include the purple one on the Nexus who’d bought the last known box of mint cookies before he could get his hands on it).

“You all right, Scott?” Cora asks him with a touch of concern, though she knew he really just needed a moment to cool off after dealing with the director.

Scott grunts softly in response as he lingers in the middle of the room, looking around and frowning at nothing in particular. He’d already changed out of his armor and into a casual outfit, a sign that he was done with his Pathfinder duties for the day, and Cora waits silently for him to collect his thoughts. Finally, Scott lets out another sigh, much softer this time, and glances around the room once more before his attention finally focuses on her, and she sees the furrow in his brow lessen.

“I’m okay,” Scott assures her, looking significantly less annoyed now.

“So, should I even ask how your meeting with Tann went?”

Scott walks further into the room, and she has to bite back a smile when he lets out a long, exasperated groan in response to her question. He stops near the end of their bed with a huff, briefly looking irritated again as he shrugs his jacket off and tales a moment to roll the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows. Scott hated having the sleeves down, just another little quirk of his that made him Scott.

“Tann can take his initiative protocols and shove them sideways up his damn cloacae, that’s how it went.” Scott replies, his toned annoyed but not directed at her, and his nose suddenly wrinkles as if he were imagining the salarian director doing just that. Which, knowing Scott, he was. “Also don’t tell Kallo I said that, just in case it’s offensive.”

“He won’t hear it from me,” Cora promises, setting her data pad aside and getting to her feet. Scott watches her as she strides towards him, his eyes taking in the purposeful sway of her hips as she walks, and the some of the visible tension in his shoulders falls as she leans up to press a soft kiss to his cheek. “You look like you could use some downtime.”

“Need some _you_ time,” Scott corrects her quietly, wrapping his arms around her waist and hugging her close to him. Cora leans into the welcome embrace with a sigh, smiling against his chest when she feels Scott press a soft kiss to the top of her head. “I missed you today..”

“Me too,” Cora replies, her voice a little muffled as she spoke against his shirt. “But Addison’s been riding us all week for those mission logs and Liam certainly wasn’t getting them done by himself. Besides, Peebee and Jaal enjoy running around Havarl a lot more than I do.”

“True, but it’s just not the same when you’re not with me,” Scott says as he reaches a hand up between them, cupping her chin to tilt her head back, and he smiles down at her before pressing another kiss to her hair and then to her forehead, down to her nose, and then hovering just above her lips. “I just.. I love having you close.”

“I know,” Cora replies softly. Scott smiles and kisses her again. It’s soft, nearly a chaste kiss, but Cora feels his hands suddenly slide down from her back to settle against her waist. He steps forward slowly, gently nudging her into the direction he wanted to go, and Cora moves with him, happy to oblige.

He keeps a steady hold on her hips as he walks her backwards through the room, his grip only loosening  when she feels the back of her legs knock into the edge of the couch, and he leans forward, easing her down. She lets out a soft grunt as she drops back to sit the couch and Scott is in front of her before she can move, mischief and a smile flashing in his eyes.

“Hey you.”

“Hey yourself.”

He grins as he climbs onto the couch and into a kneeling position above her, spreading his legs a little to straddle her hips but he doesn’t just drop himself into her lap entirely. She was a little grateful for that; he could usually hold her in place just by draping his body over hers, which he did nearly every time she had to get up before him to finish her reports. A well-placed poke to his side usually got him moving though.

Scott shifts a little as he settles into a comfortable position above her and Cora hums aloud to herself as if considering their current positions before tilting her head back to look up at him. “Stop me if I’m wrong but aren’t we usually sitting the other way around?”

She reaches up to trail a hand over Scott’s chest before he can answer and he shivers softly when she slides it back down, letting her nails drag against the thin fabric of his shirt as she does. The gesture had him practically purring, and she loved how much he loved it.

“I dunno, you look pretty good from up here,” Scott replies with another one of those toothy smiles of his that makes her chest flutter with warmth. “I think this might be my new favorite spot on the ship. That officially bumps the kitchen down to number two.”

“Choosing your girl over the galley and actually admitting to it,” Cora chuckles, reaching up to comb her fingers through his soft hair. “How does anyone resist you and your charms, Scott?”

Scott hums happily as her fingers slide over his scalp and through his hair, his eyes shutting as he leans into her touch, and when she pulls her hand back to wrap her arms around his waist instead he leans forward, gripping the top of the couch, and kisses her, his lips soft but eager against her own. She reciprocates it quickly, humming against his mouth but he breaks this kiss before it can get any more heated, to her mild disappointment.

“Oh I’m sure it’s a daily struggle for someone out there,” Scott is saying as he draws his head back, opening his eyes to look at her. He smiles again, his expression softening into something so tender as he holds her gaze, and Cora feels her chest flutter again. “But y'know, I’ve already caught a pretty amazing woman with those dastardly charms of mine.”

“That you have,” Cora replies with a smile of her own, and Scott moves his hands to cup her face before he once again claims her mouth with his own. Cora exhales slowly through her nose, tilts her head to deepen the kiss, and Scott shifts forward to rocks his hips down against hers.  She lets out a soft gasp, allowing him to brush his tongue out against hers when her lips part, and soon both of them are groaning between short breaths as they kiss and taste each other.

Cora’s the one to finally break away this time, panting softly for air as she looks up at her partner. Scott’s eyes are dark, his ears and cheeks tinged a pleasant red, and she can’t help but smile at the fact that just kissing her was enough to make his body flush so noticeably.

She reaches up to cup his cheek, palm tickled by his stubble, and his face is so warm beneath her hand. He leans into her touch again, reaching up to lay his larger hand over hers, and nuzzles his cheek into her palm before pressing a soft kiss to it. His expression is one of pure adoration and she imagines she must look the same to him, if the way his eyes shine is any indication.

A moment later Cora draws her hand back and Scott's quick to kiss her again, slow and deep, and the warmth returns to her chest, along with a rush of desire for the man straddling her lap, but she knows he’s tired after his long day no matter how affectionate he was being, and honestly she wasn’t feeling at the top of her game either.

But rather than trying to move from the couch to the bed to rest Cora instead reaches a hand up towards Scott’s waist and lightly pushes against his side, and it takes a moment before he realizes what she wants him to do. Scott nods down at her, carefully maneuvering himself off of her lap and Cora sits up, her hands still on his waist as he turns and lies back on the couch, taking a moment to make himself comfortable before he reaches up to pull her close.

He smiles at her as they get situated, one arm tucked behind his head and the other draped around her waist as she settles herself on top of him, laying her head into the crook of his neck and breathing in his scent. Scott lets out a deep, content sigh beneath her, his thumb rubbing idly against her lower back. He’s such a comforting presence right now, so warm and reassuring, and she smiles as Scott turns his face to kiss the top of her head again, having clearly been thinking the same thing about her.

The minutes tick by slowly in the quiet room, each soft second shared between them as precious as the last. Cora feels his tracing thumb eventually go still against her back and Scott hears her breathing slowing down and evening out, and as sleep takes them they both know that the _'I Love You_ 's are unspoken at that moment but still felt so strongly between them.

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're enjoying so far! Open for suggestions and requests here and on my MEA tumblr, TheScottRyder~


	4. Showering Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: NSFW-ish  
> Prompt: ‘Bathing, washing, or soaking together quietly after sex.’

\-----

She needed a shower.

It's the first thought that really crosses Cora's mind as she slowly comes down from her post-orgasm high, her body running hot and her breath still coming in soft pants. She's damn near exhausted now, and probably going to be a little sore later, but her body's also damp with sweat, among other things, and it's not a great state to be in. Definitely not a state she wants to fall asleep in..

Beside her Scott has rolled over onto his back and is still catching his breath as well, his own body flushed a pleasant red and covered in a light sheen of sweat, and he glances over at her, grinning that usual grin of his when their gazes meet.

_Her goofy boy.._

"You look like you want a shower."

_Her goofy boy who was great at reading her._

"Don't tell me you don't," Cora replies as she sits up, brushing some of her hair away from her forehead with a soft sigh. "I know you can sleep through nearly anything but being this hot and sticky seems like it's pushing it, even for you."

"It is, actually," Scott agrees, sitting up with a soft grunt and taking a minute to stretch his arms above his head before he gets to his feet. Cora watches him as he does, letting her eyes trail over his toned back, and the faint scratches her nails had left behind, and then down to his ass. Her usual disagreements with Peebee aside, the asari hadn't been wrong when she'd once commented that Scott had a great ass.

Speaking of which Scott chooses that exact moment to look back at her and she knows she's been caught, but they're past the point of being embarrassed over just sneaking a peak at a lover's body. Sure enough he grins, maybe looking a bit smug, but he doesn't tease her about it, and instead focuses his attention on finding the boxers he'd hastily discarded earlier.

It was well past midnight by a couple hours at least but the odds of them being the only ones awake were still on the low side, and running into someone while walking naked to the showers was not something Cora felt like dealing with. Scott probably wouldn't mind it, depending on who it was, but simply put he was far more shameless than she could ever hope to be.

Cora watches him search for a few more seconds before she gets to her feet as well ( relieved to find that her legs weren't nearly as shaky as she'd thought they'd be ) and considers retrieving most of her outfit but after seeing just how far some of her clothes had been flung she decides on simply grabbing Scott's discarded shirt, pretending that she doesn't see him staring as she slips it on. It's long enough on her body for a trip to and from the bathroom at least, and she'd rather keep everything else off until she was clean.

She hears Scott approaching her as she smooths down the shirt just to be sure that it was covering everything, and she has to bite back a soft gasp of surprise when she feels him slip his arms around her waist, pulling her back against him before he nuzzles his face against the back of her head.

"You look amazing like this.." Scott whispers into her ear before pressing a warm kiss to her neck and sending a soft shiver through her. She almost hated, in the best way, how often he took advantage of how sensitive her neck was. Her face heats at his words but there's just too much body heat between the two of them right now to really enjoy the moment, as much as she might want to.

"Thanks, Scott.. Now get off me, too hot for this." Cora says, nudging him lightly with her elbow. Scott's grip loosens but he doesn't let her go entirely, and she hears him snicker before he nuzzles his face into the crook of her neck, his rough stubble tickling against her skin. Cora tries and fails to hold back her laughter, squirming in Scott's arms for a few moments before she manages to slip out of his grasp, and she's still beaming as she reaches back to swat at his bare chest.

"You're terrible," Cora says with a shake of her head, unable to keep the smile off her face, "And maybe sometimes amazing."

"I'm terribly amazing?" Scott returns with that damn infectious grin, and Cora smiles as she leans up to press a few soft kisses to his lips. Scott closes his eyes as he returns each of them with obvious affection and Cora reflects on how easy it was to lose herself in this man, and how, even after the hours they'd just spent together making love and sharing stories and laughs between rounds, it still seemed that he just couldn't get enough of her.

It was unfamiliar, thrilling, and somehow terrifying all at once, but she wouldn't give it up for anything.

"C'mon," Scott mumbles, drawing away from her kisses with what seems like a bit of effort on his part and breaking her from her thoughts. "Better to not let the crew see our walk of shame, or we'll never live it down."

"It's not a walk of shame if we're going to the same place," Cora huffs in amusement as she follows Scott out of the room, though she stops to grab the towels that'd he'd forgotten on the way. He does pause in the doorway to make sure the coast was clear, and Cora can hear muffled conversations coming from behind the closed galley door as they head towards the bathroom but the crew quarters are empty, save for a loudly snoring Jaal, as is the bathroom.

"We should still make this quick," Cora suggests as she steps into the long shower stall, closing the narrow door behind her for a bit of additional privacy before she strips the shirt off, hanging it onto the nearby railing along with the towels, and notes that Scott's boxers are already lying in a crumpled pile near her feet. Cora shakes her head as she hangs them up beside her clothes, trying not to smile. Such a boy at times..

Scott, meanwhile, is standing under the far shower nozzle, his brow furrowed as he fights the familiar battle of finding that middle ground between her too-cold water preferences and his too-hot ones, at least in one another's respective opinions. Cora walks over to join him, cautiously stepping under the spray of water once Scott finally released the nozzles with a self-satisfied nod.

The water's a little warmer than her usual temperature but it's comfortable enough, and Cora lets out a soft sigh as she feels the sweat and other lingering effects of a night of sex slowly being washed away. She hears Scott mumbling something about how the water could probably be hotter but he steps under the spray beside her all the same, letting out a soft, relieved groan of his own as soon as the water hits him.

For a few minutes the two of them just enjoy the warmth of the shower and each other before they actually start to wash up, fingers brushing through wet hair or rubbing away any lingering filth. They take turns beneath the bulk of the spray, scrubbing their bodies down with soap while the other washed their hair ( or in Cora's case, while she nearly fell asleep standing up after Scott insisted on washing her hair for her and ended up giving her more of a soothing head massage than anything else).

They make it through the rest of the shower with minimal incident, aside from Scott spending far too much time 'styling' his sudsy hair to try and match Gil's haircut - and of course her laughter at his attempts did nothing to deter them at all - and Cora sighs with relief again once the last of the soaps and shampoos are finally washed away, leaving her clean and feeling fresher than she's felt all day.

"Seems weird, y'know," Scott comments suddenly, his body blocking some of the spray when he moves to stand behind her, and his arms are once again around her waist as he nudges his head against hers lightly. "Getting clean when we just know we're just gonna get dirty again later.."

"Nice child logic there but I'm afraid you've worn me out for the night, big guy," Cora replies, though she leans back into his embrace all the same. "But is that your way of telling me I'll be showering alone from now on?"

Scott makes a noise of mock offense, pressing a kiss to the back of her head before leaning his head against hers again. "Nope. Not gonna get rid of me and my delightful shower antics that easily, Cora."

"Well, I tried," Cora sighs, laughing again when Scott leans down to give the side of her neck a playful nip before she gently extracts herself from his hold, and he raises an eyebrow at her as she hastily steps out of the spray before looking back at him over her shoulder. "But, real talk for a moment, Scott? You should probably get out now."

"Why the rus- HOLY SHIT, THAT'S COLD!"

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think the build-up to the shower was longer than the actual shower. I'm sure it still counts.


	5. Pulling Them Close ( Mistake, Pt. 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T. Warning for multiple minor character deaths, including children.  
> Prompt: "Running your hand over their arm and gently pulling them close."
> 
> Welp, that rating compared to that prompt.. I mean, I was gonna have to throw them into some angst sooner or later. This one got a bit lengthy, but I hope you enjoy!

\-----

The mission had felt off from the start, but even Cora, the voice of reason and occasional pessimism ( at least according to Peebee), hadn't expected it to take the turn it did.

It had started when Scott received an e-mail from an anonymous recipient, asking for some urgent help from the Kadara slums. Vetra and Cora thought it sounded shady, Peebee and Drack thought it sounded fun, but Scott just thought it sounded like people in trouble, and damned if that wasn't his weakness.

Even so, Scott took Cora and Drack with him down to the slums, thinking there was very little that Kadara could throw at them that couldn't be beaten by a vanguard and his heavy hitters, while the others stayed behind at the port. Still, Liam suggested that they all kept their comm channels open, just in case.

Cora had been wary from the start but she definitely hadn't expected their 'contact' to actually be a small, cramped house full of elderly humans, most of them looking to be in their late fifties at the earliest. A bit out of place but they all seemed healthy enough and still capable of working, even in spite of their current residence, and Scott voiced this exact train of thought before she could.

Most of them had come to Andromeda to be with their children and their families, they explained, relatives who were all involved one way or another in the uprising at the Nexus and had been exiled along with the rest.

"We could've stayed up on the Nexus, done the jobs we came here to do," one man had said, and something about him told Cora that he was retired military, "But even if our stubborn ass kids didn't wanna listen to our warnings we're all that's left of our families out here. Couldn't just leave them to struggle down here all alone."

Scott was able to empathize with them there, earning a little more of the people's confidence. Cora knew in spite of their difference and obvious issues he would've followed his father damn anywhere, and he'd had his sister by his side if he could. Family was a strength to Scott, one that reflected in so many of his decisions, and especially in missions like this.

"They're trying to settle a village out in the Badlands, traded everything of value we had to finally get enough supplies," one woman spoke up, "Everyone went out there to work but us, told us they'd come get us once things were stable, but they haven't checked in all day."

"My daughter-in-law always checks in, and we're getting worried," another woman continued, "There's over two dozen people out there, including my grandchildren."

"We'll go check it out right now, bring them back if we need to," Scott had promised them, his smile so reassuring because he'd been so sure of how the mission would go. "Probably just an equipment failures, happens a lot out here."

There really were so many times when Cora had no problems with him being so cocksure, considering how often things actually worked out for them in spite of the struggles on the way.

Looking back now, she should've been the voice of realism. She knew she was braced for the worst outcome, Drack probably expected it as soon as he heard the word 'Badlands', but Scott? His optimism wasn't just for show but it wasn't always rewarded either, and though he'd learned that the hard way several times before he always seemed to bounce back from it.

\---

They're nearly at the village's nav point and something unpleasant has settled in Cora's chest

Scott seems as calm as ever as he drives down the worn paths serving as Kadara's 'roads', and if Drack shares Cora's concerns he doesn't voice them, instead just occasionally grunting in acknowledgement as Scott chats to pass the time.

He's halfway through telling them a story about some 'weirdly charming' bartender on the Nexus when they see the pillars of black smoke coming up from behind the hill, and the smile falls from Scott's face. He drives the Nomad a little faster, brow furrowing as worry starts to flash in his eyes, and though she says nothing Cora has a bad feeling about what they're going to find when they get there.

They reach the village and Scott's quiet as he parks the Nomad and climbs out, looking around as if he's not sure what to focus on first: the fires consuming most of the makeshift buildings or the dozen bloody corpses scattered around.

Cora swallows and follows Scott's lead.

It looked like most of the villagers had been shot down in the middle clearing, and the way some of them fell suggested that they'd been trying to surrender to their mysterious attackers at their time of death. Drack's the first to point it out, and he grips his shotgun a little tighter.

The fires around them are still roaring, still sending up the thick black pillars of smoke they'd seen on the way in. Scott and Cora exchange looks before they try to investigate but recoil when the breeze sends the stench of burning flesh their way, confirming in the worst way that more people had been inside when their homes went up in flames.

Drack is less bothered by the smell and volunteers to check what little of the buildings he can to try to get a headcount for them, to the obvious relief of his human companions.

They've all seen dead civilians before. It was never an easy thing to deal with but at least they had the experience already. That's what Cora keeps telling herself as she and Scott walk through the village, taking note of how many bodies they can see, and Cora finds a little relief in seeing that most of the shots would've killed them instantly. It's a very small comfort, knowing that they probably didn't suffer, especially since she can still smell the smoldering bodies of those who'd died to the flames instead.

She keeps an eye out for enemies but also on Scott as well. The reality of the situation doesn't seem to be grounding him like it does his companions. She'll grieve and accept what happened to the victims here today, vow to do better next time, and Drack will do the same.

But Scott? Scott's looking at the dead bodies around him like he'd personally promised these people that he'd protect them to their faces, only to lose them all to this slaughter while his back was turned.

She knows he's an adult, and a capable fighter who's gone into battle nearly every day since their arrival in Heleus. He served in the Alliance, must have learned that casualties were just a cruel fact of life, but it doesn't seem to be helping him now, and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't a little worried about his current mental state. He always took their losses personally, and she knows he's thinking about a dozen different 'what-if' scenarios right now, none of which would change what happened here.

Cora's broken from her thoughts when she nearly trips over something, and she steps back to see the first non-human body they'd come across lying at her feet.

It was an Angara, weapon still clutched in his still hand, and he was clad in a very familiar set of armor that instantly sets her on edge.

The Roekarr.

Scott scowls when he sees it, walks over the body with none of the respect he usually treats a fallen opponent with, and keeps searching, calling out for any survivors and checking all of the buildings that were still standing.

Cora follows him. With each empty building they check Scott's expression falls a little more, and she hears him sigh heavily behind her as they finally reach the last building that was still standing. It was small, looked more like a storage shed than anything else, and Cora steps into the unlit room with Scott close behind.

She sees them before he does.

The corpse of a woman, lying in a wide pool of blood, and still clinging to the bodies of two small children, a boy and a girl. Her body was turned, as if she'd been trying to shield the kids in her final moments when the Roekarr came across them.

All three of them, gunned down at once. There was no mercy here, not even for children. They needed to be identified and something else about this mission suddenly feels even more sour. She still didn't know the exact details behind the events and aftermath of the uprising but there weren't supposed to be children on Kadara. The Nexus wouldn't have banished children, even if exiles were the only families they had left. They must've been smuggled out by their families, hoping to start their new lives all together, only to meet such a cruel end.

Cora closes her eyes, takes a breath, and looks at the bodies once more. They're so small, and the entry wounds are so dark against their clothing. Her stomach lurches a little and she doesn't want to see this anymore, doesn't want Scott to see them, but he's by her side before she can keep him from looking.

He takes a sharp breath, his body going rigid beside her, and she's almost afraid to look at his face and see what sort of expression he's making.

Then she notices something she wishes she hadn't. The little girl's hair is almost the same color as Sara's.

Scott is already out the building before she even realizes that he'd moved, and he's calling Drack back over to them as he puts more distance between himself and this massacre.

The Roekarr needed to answer for this. Scott paces angrily as he calls the others down from Kadara, sends Liam and Peebee to search under Jaal's command while Cora and Drack stayed to search with him. Vetra volunteers to stay behind at the port and see if she can learn anything from her Kadara contacts.

They split up, heading off in different directions, and Cora can't help exchanging a worried look with Drack when they see the anger burning in Scott's eyes. It's not a look that suits him.

"Just let him be angry." Drack tells her as they head back to the Nomad to start their search for the Roekarr, and the old krogan's voice was uncharacteristically quiet so Scott couldn't hear them. "Kid needs get it out of his system now, trust me."

They tried their hardest.

Over four hours of searching leads to dead end after dead end, even with SAM helping every step of the way. The Roekarr responsible for the slaughter had covered their tracks well, too well for even the scanner to help. Scott curses each time the trail goes cold, and his companions both pretend they don't see it when he brushes his hands across his eyes.

Before the fifth hour is up Jaal contacts them to let them know that his team had found no solid leads and they were out of trails to follow, and Cora sees a little more light fade from Scott's eyes. Vetra calls a few minutes later, tells them her contacts had turned up nothing despite how many favors she called in, and Scott suddenly looks exhausted and so defeated that Cora's feels a physical pang in her chest.

For a long moment after Vetra's call Scott says nothing but then he sighs, brushes his hands over his face, and tells everyone to return to Kadara port. There would be no justice for the villagers today.

They run into a stray wraith as they return to the Nomad again. Scott kills it it one shot, stares at it, and then completely empties two of his guns into the beast's body until Drack finally snatches his weapon away.

Cora wishes Scott had argued or tried to get his gun back or just done _anything_ other than give them that hollow stare. Drack frowns, clearly as unsettled as she is, and hands the gun over to Cora instead as Scott walks back to the Nomad.

As they enter the slums again Scott asks them not to say or do anything when they arrive. He's the Pathfinder, he made the promises, and he'll deal with breaking the news to the remains of the families. Cora and Drack both vocally disapprove but then promise to respect his wishes, waiting outside instead as Scott heads inside to speak to the elders.

Part of Cora wishes she hadn't agreed to stay on the sidelines when she hears the sudden shouting from within.

There's a chorus of horror and disbelief at first, but it doesn't take that for that to change into anger. At least one of the women is wailing and, to Cora, it sounds like the woman who'd mentioned her grandchild.

She thinks of two small bodies and physically winces.

Scott's responses are muffled and too quiet to make out but she can hear so many voices yelling at him, telling him he was too slow and cursing him for not saving the village. He promised them. He was supposed to protect people. He'd failed them and their families.

Cora can't hear Scott's voice anymore, and she doesn't know if they're drowning him out, or if he's being silent because he agrees with them. Beside her Drack huffs, his scowl deepening at some of the things they're saying to Scott, and Cora has to physically refrain herself from barging into the room to intervene on Scott's behalf.

But then the voices fade away before Cora can actually decide whether or not to break the promise to stay out of it, and aside from muffled sobbing the room is silent when Scott finally emerges. His expression is unreadable, eyes blanker than they've ever been, and he says nothing to either of them as he walks away, heading towards the lift that would take them back to the main port.

Cora watches him before she glances into the building he'd come out of, sees so many of the elders glowering back at them, eyes shining with ahte and tears, and she hears Drack huff again before the two of them follow after Scott. She's upset, more than a little angry, and the worst part is that she can't even begrudge them.

These poor people had just lost everyone.

They meet up with the others and head over to the bar to talk to Reyes before they leave. Cora doesn't like the man, certainly doesn't trust him as far as she could throw him even without her biotics, but Scott seems to trust him enough to reveal what went down, and the promise Reyes makes to keep his people searching for the Roekarr behind the massacre seems sincere enough. It doesn't sit well with Cora, doesn't seem to sit well with a couple of her squad mates either, but then they see Scott's expression and no one protests.

The walk back to the Tempest is painfully slow.

Peebee and Liam try to make small talk the entire way, trying to lighten the heavy mood hanging over all of them, but Scott doesn't acknowledge a word they say, or give any signals that he even hears them talking at all. At first it doesn't stop them from trying, but it does make their half-hearted laughs sound a little more strained. Peebee gives up before Liam does.

Cora brings up the rear of the group and she sees Drack and Vetra exchanging unreadable looks each time one of them so much as glances at Scott. Jaal eventually strides forward to walk beside their Pathfinder, his words too soft for her to hear, but Scott's hurried pace doesn't slow, he doesn't even look at Jaal, and soon Cora hears the Angara's soft, defeated sigh.

Gil says nothing as they all file back onto the ship but he does seem surprised by their collective somber mood, shooting Vetra a questioning look after Scott storms past him, and Cora watches as the turian leads their engineer aside to answer his questions, once again out of Scott's earshot.

Cora, Liam, Jaal, Drack, and Peebee all stop at the lockers to remove their weapons and armor or change into their casual wear but Scott keeps walking, acknowledging nothing they say to him as he rushes out of the cargo bay and leaves his team behind.

In that moment it was all too quiet.

There's none of those jokes about today's close calls or assurances about how everything could've been way worse. No blue eyes flashing with amusement as the squad compares their personal victories to his. No patted shoulders or fist bumps or crooked smiles as they're all praised for a job well done by their Pathfinder. There's just.. nothing in the room that feels like it should when Scott's around. It's a terrible feeling.

"So.. What do we do?" Liam's the one to finally break the silence. "We just give him some space, let him cool down?"

"Can't cool down cause he's not pissed off," Drack grunts in reply, slamming his gun down with a little more force than usual. "Kinda wish he was. That'd make this a hell of a lot easier."

"Well, you guys know Scott, always needing to be the hero and save everyone he can," Peebee mumbles from where she's leaning on the table, and in spite of the overall mood Liam manages a brief smile as he nods in agreement.

"Yeah, but the downside to that is that he carries those he couldn't save with him," Vetra sighs, folding her arms over her chest, and beside her Gil is looking somber. "We've lost settlers before, but not entire families all at once."

"He knows we are here, and all willing to listen," Jaal pipes up, standing in a similar pose as Vetra. "Concealed pain will do nothing but fester and make everything worse. Perhaps he should be speaking about what he's feeling to the doctor."

"The doc ain't the one he needs right now," Drack replies gruffly, and suddenly six pairs of eyes are turning towards Cora, who stiffens a little under the sudden attention.

She thinks for a moment that they're right. She was Scott's partner in addition to his second-in-command, she should've been following him already, but there's still just enough worry in her mind to make her hesitate. There wasn't anything Scott could have done about what happened, nothing he could have changed, but that didn't stop him from suddenly blaming himself for the deaths of over two dozen people.

It was a weight she couldn't imagine carrying, she didn't want to imagine it, and she didn't really know what she could do or say to ease any of it.

But then she thinks of him, sitting in his room and all alone with this grief, and her mind is made up for her. Right now he wasn't just their Pathfinder, he was their friend, her best friend, and he needed them. He needed her.

"We'll get the reports done and keep Addison off the vid comm," Vetra promises her with a hint of a smile that Cora manages to return. "You go take care of our boy, Harper."

Her squad mates are still talking quietly amongst themselves when she leaves the cargo bay, passing Lexi on the way out, and Cora checks the other rooms on the way just to be sure that Scott hadn't gone anywhere aside from his quarters.

"Lieutenant Harper, I am detecting noticeable chances in Ryder's stress levels." SAM's voice suddenly says over the comms, and she's always surprised at how concerned their AI could sound at time, especially when it came to Scott. "I have tried speaking with him, however, he is not responding to me. Perhaps you will have better luck."

"On my way right now, SAM." Cora reponds promptly, before hearing the soft, familiar chirp of SAM temporarily turning off his logs just as she reaches the Pathfinder Quarters.

The lights are dim and the windows are blacked out when she walks in, definitely not a good sign considering how much Scott loved the view from his room, and speaking of Scott, it actually takes Cora a moment to spot him in the darkness.

He's sitting on the edge of his bed with his back turned towards the door, leaning forward onto his knees and holding his head in his hands. He looks so small right now, so damn near broken. Nothing like the vibrant, energetic young man she knows and loves, and it hurts seeing him like that.

"Scott?" Cora calls out softly as she approaches him. He tenses up a little when he hears her, but doesn't look up at her. She walks over to stand beside him, hesitant, before sitting down onto the bed. He doesn't protest, to her relief, and instead actually leans a little closer to her.

The silence between them is terrible, and so unfamiliar. The two of them being alone in the room usually meant quiet conversations and soft touches. Gentle smiles and shared laughter. Taking comfort in one another's presence as they finished off their respective reports or just wasting their free time lounging in bed together. Even their occasional bickering would've been preferable to this..

"Scott," Cora tries again, concern heavy in her voice as she reaches over to trace her hand along his arm. Scott tenses up again but this time he sighs, and finally raises his head to look over at her.

Cora's heart sinks when their gazes meet. His eyes are brimming with a terrible mix of emotions, a bit red and just puffy enough to betray the fact that he hadn't just been sitting there in the time it took her to reach him. She's hit with a pang of guilt but she's more concerned than anything else right now, and she traces fingers down his arm to gently touch his hand.

Scott swallows, and turns his hand over to grasp hers. His fingers are trembling.

"Scott, please, say something.."

"Cora.." Scott starts but he barely gets her name before his voice breaks and his expression suddenly crumbles.

He turns his body towards her and Cora immediately pulls him into an embrace, her arms around his torso and his fingers are gripping the back of her shirt. His hands are shaking, his shoulders are threatening to do the same, and Cora gently rubs his back as he buries his face into the crook of her neck.

It hurts, seeing him like this. It's one of the few occasions where she's reminded that Scott really is a young man, just a boy to most, and a wide-eyed idealist carrying far too much weight on his shoulders. She does admire how rarely he actually buckles under it, but still hates when she sees it actually happening.

Scott lets out a shaky breath as he presses himself a little closer to her, his shoulders shaking a bit more as Cora reaches up to brush a hand through his hair, trying to soothe him with soft whispers and even softer kisses.

She wants to think it's helping him, even as she starts to feel the dampness against the neckline of her shirt. Scott's not okay right now, might not be okay for a while even once he's laughing and smiling again, but at least she knew she could be there with him. She couldn't take the pain away but she could ease him through it, and sometimes that was all a person could do.

Most of the time, it was enough.

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes, nearly 4000 words of angst. Next couple chapters will be fluff!
> 
> Hope you're enjoying so far! Open for suggestions and requests here and on my MEA tumblr, TheScottRyder~


	6. Laying in the Grass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G. Warning for some endgame spoilers.  
> Prompt: The way you said “I Love You.”: #12 – ‘When we lay together on the fresh spring grass’.

\-----

Part of her can’t believe it’s finally over.

Meridian was amazing. Not just because of what it could do but because of what it could be, for all of them. A new home for humanity, a new foundation for the lives they were building and sharing in Andromeda with not only one another but with the Angara as well. A fresh, safe start for everyone, all thanks to the opportunities and inspiration that the human Pathfinder had given them all over the last few months.

This new world.. It’s so much to take in, the rolling hills, the lush mountains, and the wind pushing the clouds above. Not bad, as far as places for the Hyperion to get stranded went, though it almost doesn’t seem possible to Cora, thriving like this while seeming so confined and artificial at first glance, but she supposes it’s just one more thing that makes Andromeda so incredible.

But the most incredible thing in this new galaxy, she thinks, is the man standing right beside her.

She looks over at Scott, who seems lost in his own thoughts as he stares out into the valley beyond, arms folded over his chest and a surprisingly calm expression in his face. He looked proud, and satisfied to be standing where he was. Victory looks good on him, she thinks, before turning her gaze back out to Meridian and breathing in the fresh air. 

Now _this_ was truly a golden world, and she wonders briefly what Alec would think of this place, and of his son's accomplishments.

She hears a sudden thud beside her and Cora blinks, looking down to see Scott now sprawled out on the ground near her feet, his arms stretched out beside him and that boyish smile on his face. He'd closed his eyes on the way down and looks relaxed, more content than she's seen him in weeks, like the crushing weight he's been carrying was finally off his shoulders.

It wasn't gone completely of course, this was a new beginning after all with a lot of work ahead, but the Archon was gone and so were his threats of destroying the entire cluster through Meridian. But that was a thought for tomorrow. Today was his day.

Scott takes a deep breath before opening his eyes again, sitting up just long enough to tuck one arm behind his head before his gaze shifts over to her. His eyes immediately fill with warmth and Cora's breath catches in her throat at how completely and utterly _happy_ he looks right now. Happy and victorious and finally able to have a moment for himself. It's a look she's wanted to see on him for a long time now, and now that she is it's even better than she'd imagined.

He pats the ground beside him invitingly and Cora turns, sitting down beside him with far more grace before she lies back, her head settling against his chest. Scott's arm immediately curls around her shoulders to pull her close to him but his gaze is on the sky above. She does the same, watching the clouds slowly drift by, and for a few minutes they just bask in their victory and in the warmth of this new world. The breeze is cool, the grass beneath them is soft, and Scott is a warm, sturdy presence beside her.

It’s perfect. Even more beautiful that she'd dreamed it would be.

"Well, no stars guiding us and our rover got kinda wrecked back in the valley, but not a bad start to our adventures," Scott finally says to break the silence, turning to nuzzle his cheek against the top of her head. Cora leans into the gesture, letting out a soft, happy hum of her own.

"No tent either, but there is an Ark," Cora points out, and Scott chuckles, nodding back at her. The Ark in question was probably full of people looking all over for them right now. Everyone around wanted to see or speak with the Pathfinder and the team who'd finally taken down the Archon and saved them all, but Vetra and Liam had promised to keep the crowds occupied, at least long enough for the two of them to slip away and enjoy a few moments to themselves.

“We’ll still have our own adventure soon enough,” Scott continues, looking over at Cora before he suddenly sits up, rolling over and leaning his upper body over her. Cora settles back against the grass as he does, smiling up at him as he braces his forearms on either side of her head, moving closer until his lips were hovering just a few inches above hers, and it's hard resisting the urge to sit up and kiss him. “On our own, blazing a new trail through Andromeda. Just me and you..”

“I can’t wait,” Cora replies, her voice quiet and honest. Scott beams and leans down towards her, letting the moments slowly pass as the two of them exchange warm, lazy kisses, hands wandering over each others bodies not to build up any excitement, but rather to just relish the fact that the other was still there. They’d really made it, side-by-side, and Cora smiles against Scott’s lips as their victory sinks in once more.

"We really did it, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, we really did..” Scott hums, lightly bumping his nose against hers with a playful grin. Cora returns it with her own smile, reaching up to trace her fingers through his hair before grasping the back of his head, pulling him down into another slow kiss, and Scott sighs softly when he finally pulls away. “Told you I couldn’t do it without you..”

“You didn’t _want_ to do it without me,” Cora gently corrects, hand trailing down from the back of his head to cup his cheek, her thumb starting to stroke the side of his face affectionately. “I never had any doubt that you could do this, Scott. None of us did.”

“I did,” Scott confesses quietly, shifting his weight onto his one arm and reaching his other hand up to cup the side of her face, mirroring her touch. “I mean, I talked the talk for the vids but I didn’t really know if I could beat the Archon or even find Meridian. But.. Cora, you’ve helped me believe we could win since the beginning, and.. maybe I _could’ve_ done this without you, but I’m glad I didn’t have to. I don’t know how this might’ve turned out without you giving me strength.”

“Well, you’ll never have to worry about that because I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart,” Cora assures him, smiling as she thinks back to an earlier exchange between the two of them, when their relationship had really started to bloom into what it was now. “But hey, you earned this victory because you’re _you_. Sweet, funny, amazing Scott.”

Scott’s expression softens, and she knows that he knows exactly what conversation she’d been referring to. He lets out a short laugh, warm and rich, before leaning down to rest their foreheads together.

“That’s what you see?”

“It’s what I’ve always seen.”

He kisses her again, slow and deep, taking her breath away in the best way possible and she knows she’ll never get enough of this incredible man. The sight of his crooked smiles, the sound of his laughter, and the taste of his lips on hers will always leave her wanting more. But now she knows he’ll be there beside her without the Archon's threat hanging over their heads, happy to give and take just as many idle comforts from her.

“I really am so proud of you,” Cora whispers once they break the heated kiss for air, and Scott grins, ears and cheeks flushing lightly under her praise. He still blushed so easily, another little thing about him that she just adores. “I love you, Scott..”

“I love you too, Cora,” Scott replies before he kisses her again, hands moving to grasp hers and gently entwine their fingers together as they sink down into the grass to lose themselves in the moment, in each other, and in the first steps of a new chapter in their lives.

_Together._

\-----


	7. 'I’m Not Doing This.' ( Mistake, Pt. 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: T  
> Prompt: “I’m not doing this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got some more angst with a dash of hurt/no comfort here cause this quote just screamed ‘conflict’ to me.
> 
> Also if you haven’t read it for whatever reason, the events they're referring to are from chapter 5~

\-----

When Kallo announces their arrival in a port over the comms Cora thinks that the ride felt far too short for them to have already reached their destination, but it’s not until she’s on the bridge that Cora realizes that they were definitely not where they were supposed to be. Or at least, not where she expected them to be.

She stares down at the crowded port through the window as Scott comes up to stand beside her briefly before he heads towards the load out station in the airlock, and she should’ve known something was wrong with him when he didn’t touch her or even address her. She frowns, following him into the room, and his body is tense when she reaches up to touch his shoulder.

“We’re supposed to be running medical supplies to Voeld right now, so why are we on Kadara?” Cora asks, watching as Scott takes an array of weapons from his locker. He doesn’t answer her right away, even when he notices her looking over the collection of shotguns and assault rifles he was picking from. His strongest guns, with enough fire power to kill a pack of fiends. “Scott?”

“Reyes called in half an hour ago, he got some new reports about a Roekarr base,” Scott finally replies, slipping his guns into his holsters and turning away from the locker, their gazes briefly locking. “Biggest encampment they’ve found so far but well-hidden, even to smugglers. It’s gotta be the ones that wiped out those families.”

Cora remembers that mission from a few weeks ago, and it's far from a fond memory now. Despite Scott's promises to bring everyone back to relative safety they'd instead found dozens of civilians slaughtered in the homes of a village they’d been trying to settle in the Badlands, and then in spite of hours of the entire squad searching that day they hadn’t found anything aside from a few sets of faded tracks and the body a single Roekarr among the dead humans.

She also remembers how hard Scott had taken the loss of so many civilians, especially after they found children too, but she doesn’t like the way he’s behaving right now. He looks furious but eerily calm as well, and it’s honestly a little unsettling to see him with such a murderous look in his eyes.

“So why are you packing up half the armory?” Cora asks, nodding to the set of heavy-duty weapons he was bringing with him. “I’m not saying that a camp of Roekarr doesn’t need to be dealt with but we should at least _try_ to capture the leader, maybe get some intel.”

“I don’t need any damn intel,” Scott replies as they head towards the cargo bay, and his tone sets her further on edge. “We found a Roekarr body among the dead and we know that they kill our people on sight. As far as intel goes that's damning enough for me."

“So do you at least have a plan?” Cora asks, having to quicken her stride to actually keep up with him, and Scott glances at her briefly before facing ahead of him again.

“Sure do. Get to the camp, shoot them all in the fucking face, then celebrate.” Scott replies curtly, and Cora physically falters for a moment. This.. This wasn’t her Scott talking right now.

“That’s not a plan,” Cora says, her voice starting to take on an edge as well. “I think you need to stop and take a breath, Scott, try to cool your head before you make any rash decisions-"

“They killed innocent people!” Scott suddenly snaps, turning his glare on her as if she were somehow the villain in this situation. “They killed _kids_ in cold blood Cora, and you want me stop and think it over?!”

“Yes, I do!” Cora replies sharply, still trying to reason with him in spite of his obvious temper, and with each passing second her concern was growing. This anger, it wasn’t like him at all. He didn’t go after others with this kind of blood lust and he’d never disregarded her or her opinions so harshly. “We don’t even know if this is the same group.”

“They’re still the Roekarr!” Scott snaps again, as if that should have been all the explanation Cora needed, but nothing about this was settling right with her. “They’re radical alien-haters, remember? Even if they haven’t hurt any of our people yet they will eventually! Might as well wipe them out now before their hands get bloodier!"

“Scott, use your head! We don’t know what we’ll find at their encampment yet,” Cora says, managing to keep her voice calm in spite of what she was inwardly feeling. “For all we know there could be prisoners, or Angara who weren’t part of the raid. We can’t just go in guns blazing or we could risk innocents getting caught in the crossfire.”

“If there’s Angara there then they’re radical sympathizers,” Scott replies curtly, damn near cruelly, before turning his back to her again. She gapes at him for a moment before following him into the cargo bay, and glances around at the others gathered. She sees varied looks of discomfort and disapproval on the faces of her companions, and it briefly causes her to wonder if she was actually the last to learn what they were doing here.

“And if there’s prisoners then well deal with them after.” Scott suddenly adds as if it were an afterthought, regaining her attention, and she feels her frustration mount.

“Damn it Scott, would you listen to yourself?!” Cora demands, stepping forward to stand between him and the rear exit of the cargo bay as he tries to leave. Scott stops, jaw visibly clenching but he says nothing, and behind him she can see the others exchanging glances. “Taking out the Roekarr is one thing but you’re willing to risk putting innocents in danger just for _potential_ revenge? You don’t see the irony in that?!”

“We’re moving out, Lieutenant Harper.”

“Scott, please..” Cora tries again, not budging in spite of his orders, and her voice drops low enough so that only he could hear her. “This isn’t you, Scott, and I know you’re still angry about what happened before but just.. just please think about what you're about to do.."

For a long, tense moment Scott says nothing, though she sees so many emotions flitting across his eyes, and then for a moment she thinks, maybe hopes, that his anger starts to fade, as if he were finally realizing what he was doing, and what he was asking them to do.

But then he just closes his eyes with a heavy sigh, and reaches up to pinch at the bridge of his nose before he looks at her again. She tries not to flinch; his expression is cold, uncaring, and everything else she would never before have associated with him.

“Are you with me on this or not?” Scott asks her quietly, his tone clipped, and Cora feels her heart sink. The tension in the room climbs even higher, and the others all look like they want to intervene but none of them do, expressions torn and gazes turned to the ground.

He'd made up his mind, it seemed.. She closes her eyes as she takes a breath, and feels them brimming up with tears she doesn't let fall before she meets his gaze and slowly shakes her head.

“No.” Cora answers, and she somehow manages to keep her voice from shaking even as a terrible mixture of anger and hurt flickers across Scott’s face. “I’m not doing this.”

“..Fine.” Scott huffs, no longer looking her in the eye as he steps around her and heads towards the rear hatch again, and this time she doesn’t try to stop him. “Drack, Jaal, you’re with me. Move out.”

“Look, kid-”

"Ryder-"

“I said move out!” Scott interrupts harshly, the last of his strained patience apparently gone, and even Drack draws back this time but otherwise none of them move. Scott looks back at them over his shoulder when he hears no one following, his eyes blazing, before he just scoffs and shakes his head. “Fine.. All of you can stay the hell put then!”

“Ryder, come on..” Peebee tries but he’s already storming away from them, ignoring Gil and Vetra’s last combined attempts to stop him as well. Another heavy silence falls over the group as he finally disappears from sight, and for a moment they all seem at a loss about what to do. He might not have been acting like it but he was still their boss, and their indecision between obeying their leader and going after a distraught friend is obvious,

Meanwhile part of Cora just feels sick, and she's trying to keep her hands from shaking as she glances around at the others; Drack and Gil both look angry, Peebee and Liam look shocked, and Vetra and Jaal just look disappointed.

She’s currently feeling an unpleasant mix of all those emotions as well, but more than anything else she’s scared. Scott wasn’t acting anything like himself, too emotionally entangled to make a rational decision about any of this, and if left alone he would, best-case-scenario, do something he’d seriously regret once the fight was over and his mind had cleared. He couldn’t take on an entire camp of Roekarr, even if Reyes knew to have reinforcements sent after him.

"He's gonna get himself killed," Vetra finally speaks up, and though they can hear the worry she also sounds exasperated, the same way she often does when dealing with Sid on one of her stubborn days.

“Tell me we’re not really letting this happen. We're going after him, right?” Liam asks Cora, all of them turning their attention to their Pathfinder's second-in-command, and Cora takes a deep breath before she looks back at him, at all of them, and nods her head.

“No matter what else he might say, he needs us right now,” she answers, and her squad mates all look collectively relieved. She strides over to her work area to grab her preferred set of weapons, and around her the others are following her lead, reaching for weapons and armor before they stand ready, waiting for her next command, and Cora looks them all over before leading her squad mates out of the Tempest.

She wasn’t going to let anyone turn this into another bloodbath, not the Roekarr, and not Scott.

She just hoped they reached the camp before he did.

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might write a sequel to this one, if anyone wants to know what comes next~


	8. 'Just stay with me.'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G. Warning for some major endgame spoilers.  
> Prompt: “Just stay with me.”

\-----

This was far from how Scott had pictured the mission ending.

Nearly his entire body was hurting after the Archon had crippled his connection to SAM, and he’s becoming increasingly aware of the lack of his AI partner’s voice in his throbbing head. Scott hates it, and he hates that Kett bastard even more than he already did. The Archon had the Hyperion, he nearly had Meridian, and he had Scott’s family.

Well, some of his family. The rest were down below in the cargo bay, giving their weapons and armor one last inspection, each of them dealing with their nerves in their own way. This fight would be tough, probably the toughest thing they’ve faced yet, and the worst part was knowing that everyone in the cluster would be affected by how today ended for them.

It was.. well, it was terrifying to him.

He makes the rounds with his companions one last time before he heads up to bridge, where Cora was waiting for him, and she’s staring out the window as he comes in to stand beside her.

For a moment they talk about strategy, and the allies they’ve got answering their rallying cry. It’s a little reassuring, to know they wouldn’t be charging after the Archon on their own.

“You know I have to be the voice of reason out there,” Cora says, and in spite of everything else Scott smiles because she really was. The voice of reason, their conscience, his better half, she could be so much with just a few words. “But for you I’m whatever you need, because I know you’re hurting, Scott.”

“I’m fine with a _little_ pain,” Scott answers honestly, and his movements are annoying stiff. He’s still sore, though most of it has faded into a manageable ache by now, but he knows soon they’ll be in the fight of their lives. He tries not to focus on that, on what could happen to him or his sister, but there’s so much riding on his success, and right now, he’s far from being at his best. "This.. isn’t a little.“

"We’ll get through this. You’re a survivor, remember?” Cora replies, trying to reassure him, her tone possessing a calmness that he doesn’t have right now. She’s probably just as worried as he is, and her fears for his well-being had been obvious after he lost SAM, but she’s just so much better than he is at keeping a cool head.

It’s a little incredible, really, being able to see and learn both sides of her so intimately. Scott’s seen her vulnerable, and he’s seen her scared, but he’s also seen her in her element, a strong, powerful huntress, facing down whatever came their way. He admires it, maybe even envies it a little, and it gives him strength to know that she’ll be beside him as they face down the enemy.

Smart, talented, wonderful Cora indeed.

“I’ve got this, probably,” Scott says with a smile. He doesn’t fully believe it himself, but he just wants her to believe it. “But.. in case something happens, I’ll need the person I trust most at my side.”

“Always, Scott,” Cora replies, reaching over to take his hands in hers. Her touch is strong, grounding him, and he feels a little more of his fear fading away. “I’m here for you. Whatever you need.”

“Thanks, Cora,” Scott says, giving her a warm smile as he steps towards her, both of them shutting their eyes as their foreheads touch, and he nuzzles his head against hers as they hold each other close.

He doesn’t want to think that this will be one of their last moments together but the thoughts still invade his mind and Scott slowly opens his eyes to look at her, studying the details of her face, and committing everything he can about her to his memory.

He thinks about her scent, the way her eyes lit up when she smiled, and the strength that her presence gives him. She’d been there with him from the very beginning, one of the first familiar faces he saw when he awoke. It felt like a lifetime ago now, with so many comforting talks and soft kisses stolen between their missions, but it’s just not enough yet.

She’s talked about their future before, what they could do together once the way as clear for everyone to start this new part of their lives, and it scares him to think that they might not get that now. He wants her, and he wants their life together, more than he’s ever wanted anything before, and he’ll fight as hard as he can for the chance to save it.

“Everyone’s probably waiting for us,” Cora eventually sighs, and it sounds like leaving his arms was the last thing she wanted to do, but they still had a mission to fulfill. Sara needed him, everyone needed him, but right now, at that moment, he needed her. “We should head down soon.”

“Not yet,” Scott replies quietly, maybe too quickly, before reaching up to gently cup the side of her face, and his thumb stroking her cheek lightly as she leans into the touch. “I need another minute, just.. Just stay with me.”

She smiles up at him, reassuring if not a little sad, but she doesn’t try to extract herself from his embrace. Instead she leans forward, resting her head against his chest, and Scott sighs heavily as he wraps his arms around her.

This wouldn’t be the end, Scott decides as he holds her. No, it’s the start of a new chapter for them, and there was no way in hell that he was going to let the Archon take it away.

\-----


	9. Patching up a Wound 02

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Scott/Cora   
> Prompt: '26.Tending an Injury.'

\-----

Scott didn’t think that a beast as big as a rylkor could actually be capable of sneaking up on them.

Looking back now, he could probably put most of the blame on that pack of challyrions that had been distracting them - and by ‘distracting’ he means they’d been trying to tear him and his squad apart - when the rylkor had burst through the treeline with a roar, knocking Cora aside with its tail before they’d even registered that it was there.

The beast was dead now of course, having been finished off by a _slightly_ vindictive Scott while Drack dealt with the remaining challyrions, but that didn’t seem to cheer Cora up at all as Scott knelt beside her, trying to assess the damage to her arm, which had taken the brunt of the damage. It was definitely broken, but the lack of visible blood and bone was reassuring.

“I’m not seeing too much swelling,” Scott comments, taking care not to jostle the limb too much since he could still see the pain burning in Cora’s eyes, in spite of her otherwise calm demeanor. “Can you turn your wrist around?”

“Hurts just trying to move my fingers so I’d rather not risk it,” Cora replies, shaking her head with a soft sigh. “This is on me, I should’ve been paying more attention.”

“We could’ve all been paying better attention, and in your defense you did have a big challyrion trying to bite your head off,” Scott replies, giving her a reassuring smile as he rummaged through the medic bag, trying to find something he could use to make a sling that would last long enough for her to get back to the Tempest and into Dr. T'Perro’s care. “You had some shielding up so it’s probably not nearly as bad as it looks.”

“Still going to take me off-duty for at least a few days,” Cora replies, regarding her injured arm with a look of irritation and clearly trying not to wince as he gently applies a pack of cooling medi-gel against the area with the most visible swelling. “This was the last thing we needed.. There’s still too much kett activity on Eos and Voeld for me to be to get sidelined liked this.”

"Not like you’re leaving me helpless. I’ve got a whole squad of people who all signed up to shoot Kett in the face,” Scott assures her as he gets to work on fashioning an effective if not crude splint. “But until you and this arm get cleared by Lexi I _am_ benching you.”

“But Scott-”

“No buts, Cora,” Scott interrupts, his tone gentle but still firm enough to let her know they weren’t going to debate her recovery. “Unless we’re talking about yours, of course, which is going to find a seat and stay there until this heals up.”

Cora frowns at his words before she sighs unhappily, but she gives him no further arguments, watching him as he works and making only a few brief noises of discomfort while Scott gets the split into place and settles her injured arm into the sling.

“There. I think I’ve saved you from a field amputation,” Scott comments as he gently runs his hand along the band of the sling to make sure it was secure before he straightens up, gently hauling Cora onto her feet as well. Her gaze stays on her arm, expression darkening, and Scott leans over to press a soft kiss to her forehead before she can start glaring at it again. “C'mon, no pouting. It’s just for a couple days. Could be worse, used to take us like a month for a broken arm to heal.”

“Your bedside manner could be better,” Cora replies, though the furrow in her brow has visibly lessened, and Scott was glad to see that she didn’t seem to be in as much pain now. “But I guess it could be worse too. Thanks..”

“You’re welcome, though you might not be so eager to thank me once you get your bill,” Scott replies with a grin. “My services don’t come cheap, ma’am, even with that friends and family discount-”

She cuts him off with a soft kiss, turning her body to make sure her injured arm didn’t get jostled between them, and Scott feels her smile against his lips before she breaks the kiss and pulls away. “Jerk.”

“That’s Dr. Jerk to you, Lieutenant Harper,” Scott grins, prompting a glorious eye-roll from Cora, but before she can shut him up again Drack clears his throat, and they both glance over to see that the krogan had finished collecting his trophies from the bodies and was now watching them with a halfhearted glare.

“If you kids are done with the nauseating crap, we’ve got a ship to get back too,” Drack huffs, something close to amusement twinkling in his eye in spite of his gruff tone, and Scott lets him lead them back towards the Tempest, his arm around Cora’s waist to keep her steady, and this time he’s sure to keep an eye out for sudden rylkor attacks.

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're still enjoying! If you made it this far I suppose you are~  
> Open for suggestions and requests here and on my MEA tumblr, TheScottRyder~


	10. A Drunken Kiss/Cooking Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Scott/Cora    
> Prompt: 'A Drunken Kiss' & 'Cooking Together'.
> 
> This prompt calls for some attempted domestic fluff~ 
> 
> Also gonna bump the story up to an ‘M’ rating for brief smutty bits in this chapter, and in some upcoming chapters.

\-----

"So tell me again why you've got me chopping up this many brussels sprouts," Cora comments, the knife in her hands briefly stilling as she stares down at the round, greenish vegetables on her cutting board. "Or.. Eos sprouts, whatever they're calling these things."

"It's what the recipe calls for."

"What recipe?"

"My super secret recipe, that I may or may not be making up as I go," Scott replies, glancing up from the mixture of vegetables and meat he was currently heating up on the stove, and Cora shakes her head with a smile. Scott had insisted that their first night in their new Nexus apartment should've been celebrated with a home-cooked meal, but that was before realizing that neither of them were particularly talented in the culinary department.

Had she known that 'cooking' was on Scott's long list of things that he shouldn't wing but often did anyway, she probably wouldn't have agreed so easily. A little on the ironic side too, that a man who loved food as much as he did wasn't that great at making it.

"I'm sure it won't be _that_ bad," Scott continues as if reading her thoughts, flashing her a smile as she passes him the cutting board and watching as he scraped the chopped sprouts into the dish and started stirring them into the mixture.

"Guess I'll just have to have to take your word for it," Cora replies, moving to stand closer to him now that her role was done. He leans towards her as well as soon as their sides brush, and her head rests against his shoulder for a few minutes as she watches him cook, but after a while she gives up on trying to figure out what exactly it was that he was making, considering that neither it's appearance or scent looked like anything she'd ever eaten before.

"I'm thinking of calling it 'Ryder Surprise'," Scott answers when she finally asks, and he pauses to stare at the sizzling pan of food for a moment before he shrugs. "Because honestly I don't know what this kind of meat this is, so I guess that can be the surprise part."

"It didn't say anything on the package? Cow? Pig?"

"Nope, just said 'meat', and that it wasn't fit for turian or quarian consumption."

"Hmm.. Well, eating vaguely packaged mystery meat can't possibly backfire on us in any way," Cora replies, regarding the food with something close to suspicion, and beside her Scott makes a noise of agreement, still cooking away and occasionally adding a few spices, but soon enough the dish seemed done, and there was an obvious hesitation from both of them when it came to actually tasting it.

"..Want a bite?"

"You take a bite first."

"Uh-uh. I cooked it, so you have to sample it."

"Nice try. SAM can resuscitate you but I'm on my own. You first."

"How about we try it together?"

"Fine, but if I wake up in the hospital two days from now you're going to owe me big time."

"If I end up poisoning us then I'll be happy to make it up to you, in any way you'd like," Scott replies with a wink, handing her a fork as he scoops up a small bit onto the end of his spatula, and the two of them exchange looks before taking their respective bites.

It's a miracle that she doesn't gag, between the unappealing chewiness of the meat ( that had more of a rubbery texture than any kind of meat she knew of ) and the awkward mix of spices that hit her tongue. But she says nothing, chewing slowly and avoiding Scott's gaze before forcing herself to swallow the mouthful. It tasted even worse going down.

"It's.. definitely not like anything I've ever had." Cora says, going for the kindest review she could think of, but beside her Scott just blanches as soon as the food had touched his tongue, looking for a moment like he was actually going to spit it back out into the pan before he finally swallows it, shaking his head with a noise of disgust.

"Holy hell, that's crap. Should I toss it?"

"..Please."

An hour, and two servings of reheated leftovers later, Cora finds herself on the couch with Scott, tucked into his side as he held her close with the arm he had wrapped around her shoulder. She’d had her doubts about this place, but after a decent meal and with the warm presence of her lover beside her, Cora was more comfortable and content than she'd been in weeks.

The drinks definitely were’t hurting her good mood either.

Halfway through their meal Scott had fetched one of the bottles of wine that Vetra had dropped off earlier. Cora wasn't sure what brand it was or what was even in it, but she knew it was surprisingly delicious, and considering that they were both nearly done with their second glasses, Scott seemed to agree.

It was also, apparently, much stronger than any wine either of them had ever had before, and she'd gotten pleasantly buzzed before she even finished the first glass.

"S'not bad at all," Scott mumbles beside her, his voice a little slurred as he drains the rest of his cup, blinking hard and shaking his head after swallowing it. "Very.. I dunno, what's the word I'm looking for, fruity? Flavory? Tastetacular?"

"I don't think tastetacular is an actual word, Scott," Cora muses, tilting her head a little to look up at him with a smile. Scott just grunts softly in reply, his movements sluggish as he leans over to rest his head against hers, nuzzling it lightly.

"Don't care. I'm the Pathfinder of the year, I can make up any words I want," he mumbles into her hair before she feels him press a soft kiss to the top of her head. "I love you, y'know that? Don't think I say it enough.."

"You say it plenty," Cora replies softly, and the warmth she felt spreading through her body now couldn’t be entirely blamed on the alcohol in her system. "But it's still nice to hear, since I love you too."

"Good.." Scott says before he suddenly turns in his seat, leaning forward and setting his glass down onto the table with a little too much force, thankfully not enough to crack it though, and Cora barely has time to set her nearly empty glass beside his before she's being rolled down onto her back, blinking as Scott leans over her.

"Something on your mind, sweetheart?" she asks him cheekily, the couch beneath her unexpectedly comfortable, and Scott just grins before he leans down, pressing his lips to hers in a warm, almost sloppy kiss.

He tastes like the wine, and she imagines she does too, but then he deepens the kiss, tongue brushing against hers and Cora moans into his mouth. Her body is definitely running too hot to blame on the wine now, and Scott doesn't help as he shifts forward, settling his hips between hers thighs as he brushes his body down against hers.

"You, Cora.." Scott finally answers, breathing hard as he breaks away for air. His eyes are dark, pupils dilated, and even with the obvious buzz in his system his gaze is still sharp as he looks at her. "You're always on my mind.."

"You say that to all the girls you save the cluster with?" Cora asks, returning his bright smile with one of her own before they exchange a few more slow, open-mouthed kisses, and she shivers a little when she feels Scott's hands snaking under the edge of her shirt, fingertips trailing over her toned stomach.

"Nah, just one really special one.." Scott replies, pushing her shirt further up along her abdomen as he starts to trace his kisses down the side of her neck, moving down towards her collar bone before he draws his head back to meet her gaze. "But speaking of that special lady, I'm thinking that we still need to start breaking this place in. Might as well start with the couch.."

"While we're drunk?"

"Just buzzed, technically," Scott corrects her with a grin, "Besides, another mixed blessing of being a biotic, remember? No hangovers but we'll burn through this sooner or later.."

“Fair enough..” Cora replies, reaching up and wrapping her arms around Scott’s neck as she pulls him down into a rough, heated kiss.

It's not until _much_ later after they’ve managed to make it to their bedroom, with Scott deep inside her and tearing sharp breaths past her lips with every powerful thrust of his hips, that Cora thinks that she should definitely thank Vetra for the wine.

\-----


	11. A 'Hope We Don’t Get Caught' Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Scott/Cora  
> Prompt: A 'Hope We Don’t Get Caught' Kiss.
> 
> Mild T rating for this one~

\-----

Her back’s pressed against the wall before the door even fully shuts behind them but Cora’s far less focused on that than she is on the man that was pinning her to said wall, his hands gripping her waist and his mouth moving against hers in an intimate way that’s so familiar by now but it still brings a pleasant heat to her face. A soft whimper escapes her lips before they pull apart, both of them grinning, and she feels Scott’s hand slowly sliding up to cup the back of his head as he brings her into another kiss.

“Tann’s going to be looking for us,” Cora whispers distractedly against Scott’s lips before he claims her mouth once more. His hands are rubbing slow steady circles along her hips, held in place by the firm press of his own, and he fills her senses with his taste and touch until all concerns about the salarian director are being pushed from the forefront of her mind so she can focus on him.

“He can search all of Meridian himself for all I care,” Scott mutters, trailing his kisses up her cheek and towards her ear, his teeth grazing along the shell before her gives the lobe a gentle nip, coaxing another soft whimper past her lips. She loved how Scott loved to hear her, _loved_ drawing every little noise out of her that he could, and he tended to see her occasional attempts to stay quiet as a challenge. Inconvenient in some cases, very hot in others. “We just saved the cluster, I like to think I’m entitled to some alone time with my lady..”

“True, but there’s still a formal-” Cora starts to reply before his lips make their way back to hers and her half-hearted protests are forgotten. He’d stop right now and go back to the party with her if she gave any sign that she wanted to but she doesn’t feel like returning to the gathering any more than she does, and she knows that he knows it. They were glad that there was actually a celebration to begin with, but it felt like they hadn't had a moment to themselves all week.

Besides he’s not entirely wrong. Surely they’ve earned a bit of alone time together after their success against the Archon.

"I'm fine with the company I've got," Scott replies between shorter, softer kisses. "What, am I not good enough to keep you entertained, lieutenant?"

“Oh you definitely are, sweetheart, but will that stop them from looking?” Cora asks teasingly, brushing one of her hands slowly up his chest as she leans forward to pepper light kisses along the underside of his jaw, and she smiles at the breathy sigh he lets out. “Not worried that we’ll get caught?”

“Hey, the crew’s walked in on us doing _way_ worse than making out in a storage room.” Scott replies cheekily, almost sounding a little pleased with himself as the memories bring a faint blush to Cora’s face. “Besides, what’re the odds of someone-?”

The door to their far left suddenly hisses open and both of them freeze like pyjaks under a spotlight.

Cora blinks, then turns her head slowly to give Scott a long, pointed look, to which she just gets one of his trademark sheepish smiles in return.

Beyond that Scott doesn’t move, still pressed close enough to keep her firmly pressed to the wall but his eyes watch the doorway as one of the Nexus staff members steps into view, and Cora’s grateful to their past selves for finding the most poorly lit room they could on such short notice. Still, she does nothing to risk giving away their position either; as much as she was enjoying the decision to slip off with her partner there was still a formal celebration going on. Impressions and responsibilities and all that..

She watches the man for a few more seconds before glancing back towards Scott, intending to see what he wanted to do, and she instantly regrets it when she sees that he was already looking back at her and smirking. She knows that look; he's seeing both a challenge and an opportunity before him but she has no time to try and dissuade him any before he kissing her again, pushing her back into place against the wall, and it’s taking everything she has to not make any noise.

It’s.. a challenge, to say the least. Scott knows her and her body well enough to make keeping her voice a struggle and he seems intent on exploring that right now. He brushes his hands up along her thighs and then over to her ass, nearly drawing a gasp from her as he roughly squeezed two handfuls before he keeps moving upwards, slipping his hands under the back of her shirt and settling against her lower back. The rustling of the cloth sounds so loud to her own ears but the stranger doesn’t seem to hear a thing.

Any relief she feels about their continued discretion is quickly doused when Scott draws his head back, blue eyes gleaming with mischief in that way that only his do, but then he pauses as he leans forward to rest their foreheads together, his lips hovering just above hers. She looks down at his mouth for a moment, tongue briefly darting out to wet her own lips before she meets his gaze, and in spite of his otherwise bold actions she sees the silent request for permission in his eyes. She shakes her head, smiling to herself.

Damn, he was a terrible influence on her sometimes..

She pulls him down towards her this time, exhaling deeply through her nose as Scott kisses her again, slowly, before he presses himself closer but then he seems to lose himself for a moment, shifting one of his legs in between her thighs and pressing up against her in a way that tears a soft gasp from her before she can stop herself.

Scott breaks the kiss and freezes the second he hears it, and Cora swears that she can feel the stranger’s eyes turn on them but she hears no sudden startled noises, or anything else, and when she does finally look over to check he’s got his back to them, his hands on his hips.

The staff member turns around a moment later, his eyes passing over their general direction but he still doesn’t seem to see them in their shadowy corner, and finally he rubs the back of his neck with a soft, puzzled sigh, glancing back out into the hallway he’d come in from.

“They’re not back here either. Must’ve gone back to their ship.” he calls out to an unseen companion, giving the room one last fruitless look-over before he doubles back the way he came, and Scott and Cora don’t release their held breaths until the door shuts again, the holographic locking mechanism going from green to red.

There’s a few beats of silence before both of them suddenly start laughing, soft, breathy giggles that they try to keep quiet just in case the man was still close enough to hear them through the door, and Cora’s shoulders are shaking by the time the two of them get it out of their system.

Scott’s muffling his laughter into the side of her neck, his breath and stubble both tickling her, and his eyes are even brighter than before as he draws back to look at her. “That was fun.”

“That was ridiculous,” Cora corrects him with a smile, pulling him into one last soft, slow kiss before gently pushing against his chest, and Scott smiles back at her as he extracts himself from the embrace, and he makes a show of looking her over as she steps away from the wall. “Not a terrible idea, though, going back to ship.”

“Aww, but we don’t have as much of an audience on the ship,” Scott replies with a mock pout, and he just laughs again as Cora swats his chest.

\-----


	12. 'Sorry, were you sleeping?'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Scott/Cora ( Implied. Pre-Relationship. )  
> Rating: G  
> Prompt: “Sorry, were you sleeping?”
> 
> Mixing it up just a bit here, using my in-game events where Sara is the pathfinder instead while Scott joins the crew post-game. Bit of angst, but with some actual comfort to go with the hurt this time~
> 
> EDIT: 5-15-17, rewrote a few parts of this chapter.

\-----

She doesn’t remember dozing off in the middle of reviewing her reports but the next thing Cora knows she’s jolting awake as the galley door suddenly hisses open. She looks over to see Scott walking into the room but he pauses mid-step when he spots her, clearly surprised by her presence. He takes a small step back before he stops himself, giving her a sheepish smile. He definitely looks like he hadn't expected anyone else to be awake, let alone sitting in the galley halfway through the night shift. Not that she could blame him, given her own surprise to see him; everyone was still getting used to having two Ryders on the Tempest after all.

“Sorry.. I, uh, didn’t expect to find anyone else in here,” he apologizes quietly, and seems to weigh the options of what to do next in his mind before he finally steps further into the galley, the door sliding shut behind him. “Uh.. Were you sleeping?”

“Yeah, guess I was.. I must have dozed off.” Cora replies, rubbing the back of her hands over her eyes to try and chase off the lingering hold that her unexpected nap had on her. Part of her is a little embarrassed about being found in such a state by Scott. Not a very flattering impression but he just smiles, giving her a look of understanding.

“Hey, I used to doze off in weird places all the time,” he tells her over his shoulder as he walks towards the counter, apparently intent on retrieving some of the leftover coffee from the pot she made earlier. “Fell asleep in the tub a lot when I was a kid.. Kept scaring the hell out of my mom.. Apparently she thought I’d sleep through drowning.”

Cora raises an eyebrow at that, though a smile tugs at the corner of her mouth. Definitely not the sort of comment she expected to hear from their Pathfinder’s brother, but then again, they were all learning that despite the many similarities that the two of them openly shared, Scott and Sara were still drastically different people inside.

More interesting though, this was probably the most she’d ever heard him say in a single conversation since he was transferred to his sister’s team.

“Want a fresh cup?” he asks, gesturing to the half-empty coffee mug beside her, the contents of which had long since gotten cold.

“Please,” Cora replies, smiling in gratitude as she hands him the dirty mug. He smiles in return before dropping it into the sink and grabbing a clean one from the cabinet, and Cora almost chastises him for not simply cleaning it out of habit before she catches herself. She didn't intend on making a habit of it, but she knew that even the smallest criticisms lately had a high risk of putting Scott on edge, as they'd learned the other day when Lexi had teasingly told Scott that she wasn't looking forward to dealing with a second Ryder. She'd been joking, of course, but that hadn't stopped him from retreating to his room for the rest of the evening, and emerging only after Lexi and Sara spent a good half-hour convincing him through the door that it was a joke.

 _‘Everyone go easy with him until he finds his feet with us,’_ Sara had told them all before Scott officially joined the crew, _‘He’s just.. not back to himself yet and he's been through a lot lately.’_

That he had..

Cora’s not sure that she can imagine what it must’ve been like for him, being used so violently by the Archon, and being forced to channel Meridian’s power for him while at the same time struggling to fight against that control to help his sister and her team fight back as much as he could. She remembers hearing the increasing strain in his voice throughout the fight, and the fear they’d all heard in Sara’s afterwards when she thought for a moment that she’d lost him. She'd been by Sara's side when she retrieved him after the fight as well, seeing the sweat beading his pale face and he'd had a nosebleed even worse than the one Sara got on Meridian, bad enough that Sara had actually thought for a horrible second that he was dead.

Considering that he’d only started to regain his strength just before the abduction had happened it was no wonder that the incident had knocked his recovery back nearly another month, and it definitely hadn’t done his already low morale any favors either.

Some things in that fight had left some lingering changes in Sara but it had changed Scott as well, possibly even more than his sister, and for Scott the lingering effects weren't just physically. Cora’s first meetings with Scott before they departed the Milky Way were brief but she remembers getting to know a bright-eyed young man who had filled their shuttle ride with his laughter and presence. They'd all been scared no matter how much some of them were hiding it, everything was about to change for them after all and there were no guarantees that the journey would be a success, but that hadn't stopped Scott from trying to lighten the mood. Smiles and reassurances just came easily with him around around back then, but the difference now was drastic.

Now Scott was quieter, generally keeping to himself unless his sister was somewhere in the same room, and though there were a few brief jokes shared between him and the others they just didn’t have the same energy as before, like Scott was trying to be more like his old self too but kept falling short. Cora had overheard Sara talking to Lexi enough to know that their Pathfinder was worried about the rate of his recovery, even with the doctor's assurances that he would recover at his own pace, and honestly Cora often found herself surprisingly worried for him as well. Scott seemed like such a good guy.. No, he _was_ a good guy, who hadn’t deserve any of the struggles he was forced through, and he definitely didn’t deserve to lose so much of himself as a result.

“..Cora?”

She blinks hard when she finally registers that someone was saying her name, and her attention comes back into focus to see Scott standing in front of her, gently waving a fresh cup of coffee in her face.

“Earth to Cora,” Scott says, smiling a little as she takes the cup with a quiet thanks, but then his smile falters, and something distant flashes through his eyes. “Er, well.. Meridian to Cora, I guess is the new saying.”

“Sorry,” Cora apologizes quietly, looking away from him and taking a sip of her coffee before she stops to think about it, and she’s surprised to find that it’s near perfect in taste, almost exactly the way she made it herself. She glances over at Scott curiously as he sits down at the table across from her, and though he doesn’t meet her gaze as he sips from his own cup she swears his ears are turning red.

“I.. might have asked Sara some stuff,” Scott finally answers to the question she didn’t verbally ask, and yes, his ears were _definitely_ turning red now. “Just a few little things about you guys, hobbies and how you like your coffee and stuff. I.. wanted to learn a little more about the Pathfinder team, but.. I also know I’m not Sara.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cora asks, keeping her tone as light as she can in spite of her honest confusion, and Scott lets the silence linger between them for a few long moments, absently sipping at his coffee before he finally looks at her again. He frowns, shoulders slumping a little.

“Look, I.. I get that I’m not the Ryder that made a home for the people." Scott starts, his tone suddenly somber. "I’m not the one who defeated the Archon and saved the day, and I’m not the one everyone’s always thanking or cheering for.. I’m the Ryder that got knocked out of commission five damn minutes into Andromeda, and then sprung into action long enough to get kidnapped by the Archon. Then, as icing on that cake, he nearly destroyed the entire cluster and everyone in it thanks to me and my implant.”

“Hey.. None of that was your fault, Scott,” Cora replies promptly, her brow furrowing. Scott just frowns, looking away from her, and Cora reaches over to gently touch his wrist before she can stop herself. Needless to say, Scott’s attention is quickly returned to her. “I mean it. The Archon used you, in a way you weren’t ready to defend yourself again, but you still earned that victory as much as any of us did. You fought beside us, even with him controlling you and your implant, and you helped save us all. Sara earned her victory but she was at a disadvantage, and still in pain, and she might not have won if you hadn’t risked everything to help her.”

“Well she _is_ my big sister.. Guess I couldn’t just leave her out to dry.” Scott replies with a strained smile that doesn’t quite make it to his eyes. “But.. Cora, because of me everything she’s accomplished was nearly undone. I’ve listened to the reports and watched the vids, and all I've really got is an outsider’s perspective, but I know what you all went through to build the outposts, to make allies with the Angara, and to just give _hope_ to people when they had none. It was incredible, all of it, and if you guys hadn’t won then everything you worked for would’ve been destroyed..”

“But it wasn’t, Scott, because we won.” Cora continues, giving his wrist a light squeeze. “ _We_ defeated the Archon, all of us, together. You’re as much a hero as Sara is, you fought just as hard to save everyone, and the people out there who aren’t cheering your name? It’s their loss right now for not knowing you, but they will. They'll know the part you play, and that _two_ Ryders saved the cluster,  if we have to go to every outposts and spread the word ourselves.”

For a few long moments Scott doesn’t answer, enough time passing for Cora to start to worry that she might have embarrassed or upset him with her words, but then he smiles and lets out a little laugh that’s shaky but warm, and she thinks his eyes have some of their old shine in them as he looks at her.

“Thanks, Cora,” he finally says, and that red tint has returned to his ears as he reaches up to rub a hand along the back of his neck. His other hand he keeps on the table, and he still hasn't tried to pull away from the lingering hold she had on it wrist. “Really know how to make a guy feel welcome, huh? Gotta be careful though, at this rate I might win you over with my charms and become your favorite Ryder.”

“Well, I've heard of that apparent charm before so who knows, Scott? Maybe you will become my favorite Ryder before this is over,” Cora replies, smiling at the way he perks up at that, and the two of them fall silent as they both finish their drinks but it’s a comfortable silence now, and an odd peace that Cora doesn’t feel the need to break, and Cora thinks (maybe hopes actually) that there’s a mutual sense of disappointment when they finally part ways to return to their respective sleeping quarters. She falls asleep with a smile on her face, thinking of bright blue eyes and that crooked smile.

\---

The team's halfway through breakfast the next morning when Scott walks in, and Cora can physically feel everyone's attention suddenly shift to him.

He’s welcomed with a few perplexed stares and quick greetings but she can tell that everyone's holding back at least a little, as if worried that showing too much enthusiasm at his sudden arrival would scare him off. For a few beats Scott lingers in the doorway, returning their greetings with a quick nod of his own. He starts to turn back towards the door, seeming for a moment like he might actually be leaving, but then he glances around the room and pauses when his eyes find Cora’s. She smiles at him and he visibly relaxes, stepping into the room and letting the door shut behind him without so much as a flinch.

“Nice to see you, Scott." Sara remarks, looking as relieved as everyone else to see that he was staying. maybe even more so. "I was just saying that there’s been an annoying amount of breakfast leftovers without you around.” Scott glances back at his sister over his shoulder, flashing her a warm smile that neither Cora nor Sara had seen since they left their old galaxy behind. 

“Most important meal of the day, right?” Scott replies quietly before he looks away again, and his movements still a little stiff and uncertain as he gets himself a plate of food. Behind him Sara and the others are still trying to act like they’re not wondering if he was going to stay or just take his plate and go, as he's done before, but then he turns towards the table with little hesitation this time and settles himself into the empty seat beside Cora, who finds herself much more pleased than she expected by the action.

“Good morning, Scott,” she greets him, holding his gaze briefly before she turns her attention back to her half-gone breakfast, but she doesn’t miss the looks that Liam and Peebee are exchanging, matching smirks on their faces, or the way Sara’s glancing back and forth between Cora and her brother, looking visibly surprised but there's something close to a smile tugging at her lips.

“Morning, Cora,” Scott replies, and his voice is stronger now than it was moments ago. Sara definitely smiles this time, watching the two of them for another moment before resuming the conversation she’d been having with Peebee and Suvi. Scott says nothing further, working slowly through his breakfast, but before long Cora thinks she feels his knee brush against hers under the table, and when she looks over at him he’s trying and failing to hide a smile behind his mug.

Small steps, Cora thinks as she nudges his leg in return and smiles into her own cup, but it was still progress, and it definitely felt like the start of something good.

\-----


	13. An Unbreakable Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Scott/Cora  
> Rating: T  
> Prompt: An Unbreakable Kiss.

\-----

He doesn’t even remember how it had gotten started.

They were just unwinding from a mission on Elaaden, setting aside weapons to eventually be tended to and stripping themselves out of their bulkier layers of armor, with some idle conversation going on between the two of them as Jaal and Drack wandered off to their respective rooms. As always the discussion soon dissolved into snark, usually because of him, but Scott couldn’t help it when the banter just seemed to come so easily between them.

She'd been laughing at something ridiculous he’d said, which he can’t even remember now because he was still running off of the lingering high from a good fire fight, when she’d reached over to touch his shoulder, and it was a brief contact that could’ve been brushed of as anything but then the next thing he knew he had her backed up against the loadout station, arms braced on either side of his head and an unexpected quickening in his pulse rate.

It was then that he became aware of the obvious tension in the air between them, the way Cora was staring at him not with surprise but with curiosity, and there was even a hint of something challenging in her expression. She does that a lot, challenges him, but lately he’s come to enjoy it. Maybe he even relied on it.. Confrontations and talks between them no longer had those initial undertones of resentment; instead he found he was glad to have her questioning some of his decisions. She never insulted him, never undermined him just to make him look bad in front of his crew, but she made him stop to consider multiple outcomes, and think things through in ways that he wouldn’t have on his own.

He respected it, respected _her_ , but whatever this was between them had slowly but surely been creeping towards something beyond mere respect, even without their playful bits of flirting.

This? _This_ could be a very bad idea.. There were still a dozen things that needed to be said and done between them but this probably wasn’t one of them, and for a moment he thinks he’s actually going to do the intelligent thing and walk away, leave this moment where it is to be dealt with later when he’s got a clearer head.

But then her eyes drop down to his mouth, her lips slowly parting as he does, and well.. Scott never claimed to be a very intelligent man.

He doesn’t even realizing that they’re kissing until his back hits the wall, and it’s not the sudden impact that steals his breath away but rather the woman in front of him, who was gripping his thin shirt and moving her lips against his with an obvious skill he lacked in comparison. He’s only stunned for another moment or two before he reciprocates but it’s long enough for Cora to have taken control, and Scott is happy to follow her lead.

The kisses are slow and deep but still hesitant, without any sort of rush or real intent behind them, and Scott can hear a voice in the back of his mind (not SAM right now but rather that conscience he rarely heeds) telling him that _this is a bad idea_. This is Cora, once his father’s second-in-command and now _his_ second, and there are a thousand ways that this can go wrong and end badly for one or both of them but that doesn’t stop him from trailing his hands down her back, stopping just above the curve of her ass to pull her closer to him.

She whimpers as their bodies rock together, a soft noise that he feels more than hears, and then both of her hands are sliding up along his face, her fingers brushing into his slicked-back hair before she grasps the back of his head. Her nails dig into his scalp just enough to guide his movements, and Scott finds himself enjoying the brief bites of pain far more than he expected as he follows her unspoken commands, tilting his head just as she does the same. This new angle adds an entirely new dynamic to their kiss, and the brief tug she suddenly gives his hair has him gasping.

An intentional move, he realizes idly, when he feels the first brush of her tongue against his, and then his face and neck are prickling with heat. He’s kissed a few others before, both human and non-human, but this was a level of intimacy he wasn’t familiar with yet, and the sensation of feeling her tongue with his own was unusual but he wasn’t about to complain. Cora moves slow, which is either her usual pace with kisses like this or because she’d somehow sensed his hesitation, and after a moment of adjusting to it Scott finds himself really enjoying it.

It ends too soon. He’s damn near panting by the time she breaks the kiss, her lips red and deliciously swollen, and he imagines he must be in a similar state. His hair feels mussed, a lingering sting in his scalp where her nails had dug in – and just add that to the list of turn-ons Scott didn’t know he had – and he reaches up almost hesitantly to brush her hair back from her face, his fingers tracing through the long strands of her sidecut, and then he moves to cup her cheek.

For a moment Cora doesn’t react to his touch, but before he can draw his hand away she closes her eyes with an almost silent sigh, leaning into his touch and actually nuzzling into his palm a bit. But when she opens her eyes again they’re full of doubt, and Scott only knows this because he sees in her gaze what he’s feeling in his chest. She was doubting this moment, wondering what the hell they were doing, and if he didn’t know any better he’d think she almost looked a little scared.

Honestly he was feeling a little scared himself, so he wasn’t sure if that was a comfort or not.

“Scott, we..” Cora starts and trails off, like she doesn’t want to listen to what she has to say herself, and Scott feels just as torn. They could walk away now, adjust their appearance back to nonchalance and act like this never happened, but Scott’s not so sure that he can, and even less sure that he _wants_ to. There was.. an intensity behind their kisses that he’s never felt before with anyone else, not just physical, and he knows this because there’s something close to an ache in him now that they’ve pulled away from one another.

He wants to close that distance between them once more, feel their lips and tongues dance against one another’s as he breathes in every little noise his wandering hands can coax out of her, and judging by the way she’s looking at him, eyes hooded and pupils noticeably dilated, he wants to think she’s in a similar mindset.

“We shouldn’t..” 

“What? Shouldn’t stop?” Scott suggests with a bit of cheek, trying to lighten the mood because as much as he wants this he also wants her to feel like she could still step away from this with no hard feelings. He was a big boy, and if she decided that this was as much as she wanted or needed from him then he’d walk away, or let her walk away, or just-

“Smart ass,” Cora says with a grin before she grabs the collar of his shirt again and pulls him down into another searing kiss that takes away the breath he’d just started to regain.

Oh.. This worked for him too!

She slips her arms around his neck to pull him down closer, one hand scratching roughly at the back of his head and Scott can’t hold back the soft whimper it draws out of him, and his ears burn pleasantly when Cora laughs quietly into the kiss, not derisive but almost triumphant, like someone expressing delight after learning something new about a person they cared for.

He wants to wonder _how_ exactly Cora cares for him but then she’s curling her tongue around his own again, lips and teeth moving so expertly against his that he can’t keep that train of thought on its rails and it slips from his mind as he moves his hands down to her supple ass again, palms gliding over the curve before he gives it a short, playful slap, and the moan she releases sends a shiver down his spine.

“This might get messy..” Scott finally mumbles but that doesn’t stop himself from trailing hot kisses along her throat, his hands wandering from her ass to settle against her hips, and she suddenly rocks them forward, brushing herself against him in a way that sends a pulse of need through him. “Cora..”

“It might not,” Cora replies as she draws back, sounding nearly as breathless as he feels, and she stares at his lips again before she shifts her attention to his eyes. Her pupils are dilated when their gazes meet, face flushed in such a beautiful way, and Scott just wants how much further he can push this, how much more they can build between them before they either call it off or let it escalate until the end. “Do you want to stop, Scott?”

_You should do the smart thing and walk away, Scott. Turn around and leave, take a cold shower, and talk about this later like adults._

Scott grins, eyes sliding shut as he shakes his head, and he kisses her again.

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll probably edit the last few chapters later when I'm not writing on fumes. :/


	14. Cuddling For Warmth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Scott/Cora  
> Rating: G  
> Prompt: Cuddling For Warmth

\-----

“So do the Kett just sit in the snow and wait for someone to show up, or is our timing just a constant and terrible coincidence?” Scott asks no one in particular once the last of the latest Kett ambush had been dealt with. Cora glances over at him, a trace of a smile on her face as she lifts the load of Angaran medical supplies out of the Nomad instead of answering him. 

The wind picks up as she works, because of course it does, but her biotics remain steady as she moves the packages across the clearing and into the waiting crates. Meanwhile Scott just grumbles under his breath, walking around and kicking a few of the Kett bodies to make sure they were dead, and nearby Jaal was doing the same, though without the grumbling.

“All right, that’s the last one,” Cora announces once the supplies were in place, snapping the crate shut and securing the locks as Jaal walks over to join her, looking assured that the coast was clear, at least for the moment. She turns her gaze up towards the sky, frowning at the dark clouds overhead that were steadily getting closer. “We should head back before this storm hits, Scott.”

“Good idea,” Scott agrees, opening up his omni-tool long enough to call Dr. Harihn back and inform him that they’d successfully restocked all three of the supply caches. Cora listens to about half of the conversation before she returns to the Nomad, which wasn’t much warmer than it was outside, but at least she was out of the wind, which seemed to cut through both her shields and her insulated armor with minimal effort. She definitely wouldn’t miss these freezing temperatures, and the sooner they repaired Voeld’s vault the better.

Jaal settles himself into the seat behind her, looking as unperturbed as ever about the chilly weather. Meanwhile Cora tries to keep her teeth from chattering, wishing for the umpteenth time that day that she had a rofjinn because damned if Jaal’s didn’t look warm right now, and she sighs with relief once Scott finally joins them in the Nomad, shutting the main hatch and saving them all from the biting wind.

The ride back towards the Resistance base is largely uneventful, save for the few minutes Scott spent trying and failing to knock an Eiroch down a hill with the Nomad, getting nothing but a large dent in the process that Gil would complain about later, but with each passing minute the snowstorm around them only seemed to be getting worse. By the time they actually get back to the base Cora can barely see more than a few feet in front of her, and they have to rely on the dim flares to find their way into the caves.

“Well, this evening took a shit turn,” Scott remarks eloquently as he brushes a layer of fresh powder off of himself. “SAM, can the Tempest extract us with this blizzard going on?”

“That would be inadvisable,” SAM answers promptly. “However, the storm is moving quickly and I estimate that it should be clear by morning. I suggest seeking shelter and simply waiting it out.”

“Great..” Scott huffs quietly, looking around the icy cavern like it was the last place he wanted to be, and Cora shares his unhappy mood. Their usual post-Voeld routine involved coffee, a hot shower, and a warm bed, usually together and not necessarily in that order, but all of those things were currently on the ship. The ship that couldn’t retrieve them until tomorrow. “Guess we’re staying here for the night. SAM, can you relay it to the Tempest?”

“Yes, Pathfinder.”

“I will see what accommodations are available,” Jaal offers before walking off to speak to the closest resistance members, and Cora turns her attention back to Scott just as he strides over to stand in front of her, slipping his arms around her waist and leaning down to tuck his face into the crook of her neck.

Cora lets out a soft noise of protest as he does, wriggling in his grasp while not actually trying to get away. “Your nose is cold.”

“My everything’s cold right now,” Scott mumbles against the side of her neck before he moves both of his hands up from her waist to her arms, gently rubbing some of the heat back into them, and Cora lets out another soft sigh as the friction chases some of the clinging chill away. “If I freeze to death tell everyone I died fighting off a bunch of fiends.”

“I’ll make it very heroic. Might even throw in a few adhi too.” Cora replies, turning her head to kiss his temple, and she feels Scott smile against her skin before he snuggles a little closer, and she moves to rest her head against his shoulder. The embrace soon warms both of them, even with the layers of armor between them, and they reluctantly pull away from one another only when Jaal calls them over. A young female is with him, carrying an armful of blankets as she and Jaal lead them through the base and towards their temporary quarters.

Their ‘accommodation’ isn’t much more than a shack that Cora assumes was normally used for storage but at least there was a heater nearby, and the thick blankets were looking more inviting with each passing second.

“I wish we had somewhere more comfortable for you,” the young female says apologetically, setting the blankets down onto a nearby crate before retrieving a large, rolled-up sleeping mat from a nearby corner. “We don’t usually have extra guests.”

“Hey, this is a lot better than being stuck outside,” Scott replies with a reassuring smile, taking the mat and laying it out in the middle of the room before he suddenly pauses, as if considering just how many people could actually fit on it. It was large, but not large enough for three. He looks back at Jaal, opening his mouth to speak, but their Angaran companion just waves a hand dismissively before he can.

“Do not worry about me. I have a few friends stationed here, and thought I might spend some time catching up with them,” Jaal replies, though Cora swears he’s smiling as he turns away from them to follow the young female out of the shack. “I will see you both in the morning.”

“Night, Jaal,” Scott replies quickly, either oblivious or just too eager to be under a blanket to really care. He strips off his chest piece and a few of the heavier bits of his armor before he settles down onto his side but Cora’s suit isn’t nearly as bulky, and she just lies down without taking anything off.

Scott watches her with a smile before he raises an arm towards her, and Cora immediately leans over and into his embrace. He’s got one of the blankets tucked under his head to serve as a pillow but the other two he pulls over both of them, shielding them from the cool room of the air, and Cora lets out a soft, content sigh as Scott pulls her closer, nuzzling his cheek against the top of her head.

“Feel better now?” Scott asks quietly and Cora hums an affirmation as she tucks her face into the crook of his neck, breathing in his familiar scent. Scott’s body always ran noticeably hotter than hers, and between the blankets and the warm embrace of her partner it didn’t take long at all for her to get comfortable. 

“Much better,” she assures him, closing her eyes. Scott yawns quietly in return, and snuggles himself closer to her until there’s barely any room left between them, which of course Cora has no objections to. She keeps one arm tucked between them and the other draped low across Scott’s waist, and he squirms a little when she rubs her thumb against his lower back affectionately. “Tickles..”

“You do it to me all the time,” Cora counters playfully, and she feels Scott lift his head a little, as if he were suddenly considering tickling her, but then he must decide that it would simply take too much energy right now. He settles down again, instead pressing a soft kiss to her forehead.

“Love you..” he mumbles softly into her hair, voice just a little slurred as he starts to doze off. Cora smile, pressing a kiss of her own to his collarbone before nuzzling her face into his neck once more, and she hears him hum quietly, tired but happy. “G’night, Cora..”

“Goodnight, sweetheart,” Cora replies softly. The wind howls in the distance, and for a few minutes she focuses on the slow, steady sound of Scott’s breathing before sleep takes her as well.

\-----

 


	15. A Sorry Kiss ( Mistake, Pt. 3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing(s): Scott/Cora  
> Rating: M  
> Prompt: A Sorry Kiss
> 
> Part 1 - Chapter 5  
> Part 2 - Chapter 7

 -----

What the hell had he been thinking?

His self-assigned mission to take out the Roekarr responsible for the massacre had gone well at first, or it had at least seemed that way to his clouded mind.

Scott had moved quickly enough while on his own, hitting scattered camps and look-out points throughout the Badlands, and he had taken down quite a few agents at each one with a combination of his skill and sheer luck. He got cocky. Got angrier. Each location crossed off his list had brought him closer and closer to their primary settlement.

SAM protests the entire way, telling him the odds of success that one individual stood against an enemy base, whose numbers and defenses they had no actual intel on, and he advises that Scott go back for his squad mates three times before Scott snaps at him to shut up.

His AI is oddly quiet after that, and only speaks up again to tell him that he is closing in on the Roekarr’s location, and the closer they got the more Scott let his mind wander back to the villagers, and the things the elders had said to him when he reported the slaughter.

 _“Their blood is on your hands!”_ the grandmother of those two children had screamed at him no matter how much he'd tried to tell her that he probably couldn’t have changed what happened, and if he’d known there were unprotected families with children he would have done _something_ but they wouldn’t hear any of it, and by the time it was all said and done Scott had found himself believing all of their harsh their words himself.

He wanted to believe that the majority of the exiles could be brought back but now he doubts they ever will. In their eyes the Nexus had failed them, and now the Pathfinder had failed them. They had no faith in the Initiative, even less in him, and now, with their families gone, they had no reason to believe they ever would again.

 _“Make it right.”_ Another man had hissed at him when Scott had turned to leave the room, but though Scott had said nothing those words had echoed in his mind for hours. Avenge the families. Take down the Roekarr so no one else would lose their loved ones in such a needless slaughter.

Vengeance was the only thing those people wanted now, and to Scott it was the only outcome he could imagine that would feel like any sort of justice.

It wasn't until now that he realized he let it go too far. He’d dwelled on it in spite of his friend’s attempts to comfort and reassure him. He’d let it fester and his grief turned to outrage, and then to hatred. He wanted those Roekarr dead, wanted them all on their knees and gunned down the same way they’d killed innocent people trying to surrender.

Letting that anger ultimately make his decisions for him had been one of his biggest mistakes he’d made yet, and he'd ignored every instinct telling him that when he jumped out of his shaky shuttle and charged into the camp without hesitation the second his eyes fell on it, guns and biotics blazing.

He thought he’d been prepared for a decent fight from his enemy, maybe a dozen high-ranking agents or so. He hadn’t been prepared for the scores of Roekarr that had been waiting in ambush for him to arrive.

A downpour of ammo suddenly flying at him from a barrage of unseen enemies had an uncanny way of quickly sobering one’s mind, and Scott ducks down behind cover as he’s hit in the face by the reality that he had no real plan, no immediate back-up, and if Sara was around, this would be very high up on her long list of ‘Stupid-Shit-Scott-Does’.

He wasn’t ready for this, not by a long shot. He was one ill-prepared man against nearly fifty ruthless Roekarr agents, and even as he manages to get a few kills in from where he was kneeling behind a crate he wonders, again, what the hell he was doing.

A few of a Roekarr are shouting out orders to their subordinates, speaking too quickly for Scott to even try understanding with his minimal knowledge of the Angaran language, but he’s pretty sure they’re saying something along the lines of ‘Shoot that dumbass alien!’.

He manages a shaky laugh at that in spite of everything else and Scott slowly weaves his way through the encampment, rolling from one cover to the next as SAM issues tactical advise to him, switching him from profile to profile, and though Scott thinks he’s killed at least over a dozen he doesn’t seem to be making a dent into their numbers at all. It seems like every agent he takes down is immediately replaced by at least one more, and soon SAM starts advising a tactical retreat instead of continuing an offensive assault.

“Little too late for that, SAM,” Scott replies through sharp breaths; he’s seen enough red dots on the ground beside him to know they had at least three snipers in position above him. At this rate he wouldn’t get a yard away before they shot him down. “Got a Plan B?”

“There is a supply shed about 100 years from your current location, Pathfinder. It may provide adequate cover, or at least allow you to restock. Two of your guns are critically low on ammo.”  
  
“Got it,” Scott replies, peeking out from behind the bullet-riddled Angaran rover he was crouched behind, and he quickly spots the shed SAM had been talking about. It’s not too far but there’s not much cover between him and it either.

Still, making a break for the shed couldn’t be any worse than crouching behind a rover that could explode any second now, and Scott waits for a pause in the shots before he rushes forward, feeling his shield rippling from the shots being fired his way.

“Pathfinder-“

He’s halfway to the shed when he suddenly hears the telltale boom of a rocket launcher being fired, the sharp whistle of the falling shell steadily getting louder, and Scott nearly slips over the graveled ground as he skids to a stop, and SAM bolsters his shields just as the shed explodes, debris and flames bursting outwards.

A combination of the impact and the sudden draft sends Scott flying backwards several yards before he hits the ground, the breath knocked roughly from his lungs. There’s soreness throughout his entire body as he rolls over onto his side, and the world around him is muffled and muted aside from the sharp ringing in his ears.

“SAM?” Scott calls out but he can barely hear himself, like he’s hearing his own voice through a thick wall. He reaches for his pistol, palms scraping over nothing but flat ground, and he knows before SAM tells him that his shields are down. He can feel the flames nearby, burning hot and he instinctively tries to crawl away but his body doesn't respond. “What happened..?”

“The Roekarr seem to have anticipated your move, Pathfinder. It is likely they believed the destroying the shed would kill you as well, but the shot was early.”

“Fuckers..” Scott mumbles, and he tastes copper in the back of his mouth. Probably not a good sign. The ground in front of him blurs in and out of focus as he rolls over onto his stomach, pushing himself up into a kneeling position. His movements are sluggish, everything aching, and he looks around blearily at the smoky haze around him. He can't see anything but smoke and his ears are still faintly ringing, so for all he knows he's completely surrounded by now. “SAM, I need my shields back..”

He hears the shot before he feels it. The bullet tears through his side and Scott jolts forward with a cry as a sharp, hot pain spreads out from the area. He can actually feel blood rushing to the area as the burn spreads, and he grits his teeth to keep himself from crying out again. If moving hurt before then it was nothing compared to now, and Scott turns his head to examine the wound as much, though there's that part of him that doesn’t actually want to.

It’s more of a graze than an entry wound at least but it’s still deep, and the sight of the dark, wet flesh visible in the gap makes him tremble a little. He reaches down to press a shaky hand to the wound though it stings even more at the contact, and blood is already starting to trickle down his side and along his hip.

The upside of the injury was that it hadn’t passed through his body completely and left him with two gaping wounds. The downside was..

Well, actually, everything after that first ‘positive’ point was a downside.

“Ryder, you need to find cover immediately.”

“Working on it SAM!” Scott snaps back, waiting another moment to let his shields recharge enough to actually protect him before he stumbles up onto his feet, panting through the pain as he limps as quickly as he can towards a stack of nearby crates.

Now behind cover, Scott leans heavily onto his left leg to take the pressure away from the wounded side, yelling at himself internally for overlooking a medical kit in his haste to get here. Stupid mistake. _Stupid, stupid Scott._ His side is burning hot, the skin around the wounds inflamed bright red and still leaking blood.

That stupid part of Scott tries to ignore it, leaning out of cover whenever he can to keep firing at the Roekarr but before long the recoil from his weapon becomes too painful and he slumps back against the crates again, and it's taking all the strength he has left to keep himself from collapsing.

“S-SAM, see if you can dull this and.. t-try to keep me upright,” Scott orders shakily, glancing around the edge of the crates as his AI replies in affirmation. The ache in his side suddenly lessens, or at least his mind becomes less focused on the pain thanks to SAM's control over his sensory receptors, and he’s at least able to keep himself standing now as he keeps shoot.

But it hadn't stopped the bleeding entirely, and that was only one of his glaring problems. His assault rifle is empty, his pistol won’t last much longer, and he doesn’t know how effective his sniper rifle will actually be against however many Roekarr are still out there, at least three dozen if he had to guess.

Through the haze of pain and bit of adrenaline he does find it odd that none of the Roekarr are just swarming over to finish him off. Maybe they’re planning something, or they’re expecting his reinforcements to show up any second now, or maybe they realized he's foolish and alone so it’s just a game to them at this point.

_See how long the dumb alien lasts! Whoever makes the killing shot gets two servings of desert tonight!_

He doesn’t manage to laugh this time, arms trembling as he fires a few more shots and successfully takes down a couple more Roekarr agents, but before he can even relish that little bit of progress he hears the sound of a shuttle arriving, and Scott watches as it drops down at least a dozen Roekarr agents onto the far side of the encampment.

His heart sinks.

That was it, Scott thinks, suddenly feeling exhausted. That was the final turning point of the fight. A single shuttle had just made up for the dent he’d actually managed to make in the Roekarr’s numbers.

The fight is all but over. He knows it, and now he knows that the Roekarr know it. Their unnecessary reinforcements had just arrived. The ones Scott had expected from Kadara had not, and judging by the painfully clear skies around him, they weren’t coming, at least not soon enough to actually make a difference.

He doesn’t think his team is coming either, but he sure as hell didn’t blame them.

“Fuck..” Scott hisses through his teeth, gripping his bleeding side again as he surveys the area, trying to find some sliver of hope that he wouldn’t be shot down like a stray varren within the next few minutes. Not much more cover, considering how many crates and vehicles had been blasted into disuse already, and most of the buildings around him had Roekarr standing at all the doors and windows.

But not all of them did, Scott realizes, seconds before SAM affirms what he’d just been thinking.

His best shot at surviving this was the large warehouse on the other side of the clearing, which of course could have held countless more Roekarr agents inside, but he probably had a better chance of survival in an enclosed area than he did in an open field.

Scott raises himself up long enough to fire a few more rounds before he suddenly bolts towards the warehouse, his body screaming in protest. For a moment he stumbles, and thinks the pain might actually make him black out but he stay upright, doesn’t stop running, and his already weak shields are getting weaker with each shot fired at him.

At the sound of pursing footsteps right behind him Scott turns, shooting at the rushing Angara that were closing in on foot, but he only manages to hit a few of them before his pistol clicks as he pulls the trigger, telling him that he’d just used up the last of the clip, and a horrible sense of defeat washes over Scott even as he manages to reach the warehouse door, shoving them open and rushing inside.

\---

Cora doesn’t like the progress they’re making. Or rather, the lack of progress.

Not much time had actually passed between Scott’s angry retreat from the Tempest and then their own decision to gear up and follow him, but it seemed that in that short amount of time he’d somehow gained a massive head start on them, even though he’d opted to take of one Reyes’ worn shuttles instead of the Nomad.

In retrospect, however, she was actually relieved that he’d done so. Unlike Scott, none of them were on good enough terms with Reyes to borrow a shuttle themselves, except for _maybe_ Vetra but even that was a stretch, and they definitely wouldn’t have caught up to Scott’s trail if he’d taken the Nomad with him.

Speaking of which his trail isn’t hard to find or follow, a bit of further luck on their part. They head further out into the Badlands and frequently come across quite a few Roekarr bodies along the way. Their various campsites are scattered but all seemed to be leading the trail out in one general direction. There’s also no living Roekarr left to fight them at any of the camps and no obvious signs that Scott was wounded or in trouble, but any reassurance Cora might have gotten from that had been crushed the minute they found the downed shuttle.

It’s not the same one Scott had taken, to Cora’s immediate relief, but Vetra still recognizes it as one of Kadara’s shuttles, or more specifically, one of Reyes’ personal shuttles. The search through as much as they can of the burning wreckage, finding only the pilot’s body, still smoldering and strapped into his seat, and Liam quietly comments that he hopes it was the impact and not the flames that killed him. Cora finds herself silently agreeing; that would've been a horrible way to go.

Peebee and Drack find the rest of the crew a few minutes later, on the other side of a nearby hill, and Cora hurries over to see the bloody aftermath of a firefight, dead humans, turians, and angara scattered all around. One of the dead Roekarr is still holding a rocket launcher, which Vetra comments must’ve been what took the shuttle down, and then most of the non-Roekarr bodies are recognized and identified by Drack as some of Reyes’ henchmen.

A quick call back to side smuggler confirms Cora’s growing fears; the shuttle they’d found had been full of the reinforcements Scott had been expecting from Kadara, only to have been shot down by the Roekarr a few miles away from where they were supposed to rendezvous with the human Pathfinder, and the number of men Reyes had sent matched the amount of present corpses. But Reyes has received no message about the crash from them, which meant that Scott likely didn't either.

Cora's heart hammers a little harder in her chest as she ends the call with Reyes. Part of her was already angry at Scott, but now she was more worried than anything else. Wherever Scott was fighting now, he was alone, and needless to say, this discovery had severely shortened their timetable.

“SAM, are you there? What’s Scott’s current location?” Cora demands once they’re on the move again, staring ahead of her as the Nomad tears across unfamiliar territory and towards the updated nav-point they’d gotten from Reyes. For a moment the AI doesn’t answer, and Cora feels her heart lurch again. “SAM?”

“I am here, Lieutenant Harper.” SAM finally says through her implant, and Cora sighs in relief, though she notes that SAM’s voice is softer than usual, and his slow reaction time couldn't have been a good sign. “The Pathfinder is approximately 2.23 miles east of your current location. However, he has been wounded, and is dangerously outnumbered.”

“Can the Pathfinder hold out until we get there?” Cora demands, eyes fixed on their nav point, and she feels another unpleasant pang at the AI’s lack of an immediate response. “SAM? Will Scott make it?”

“…I recommend extreme haste, Lieutenant.”

\---

He makes it a few yards into the warehouse before his legs finally give out on him, and Scott bites by a sharp cry as he collapses, barely able to push himself into an upright position before slumping back against the stack of supply crates behind him.

He’d been gripping his wound the entire time he ran, managing to stifle some of the bleeding enough to not leave an obvious blood trail right to him, but the Roekarr had probably sent in at least a dozen agents to go in after him, and it wouldn’t been long until they found him. This warehouse was only so big after all, and unless he found a box of heavy duty medi-gel and a lot of compatible ammo before they discovered him..

Right now the odds of winning this thing, or at the very least walking away from it alive, are really not in his favor, and Scott realizes as he lets out a deep breath. Even if he did miraculously manage to find a crate of everything he needed, he just didn’t think he had to strength left to pull it off, and now.. Now there was only one thing he absolutely needed to do before he was found.

“SAM,” Scott hisses through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the hot, pulsing pain in his side for a few more minutes. Just a few more. He needs to stay as sharp as he can right now, and keep his mind clear enough to get this done without further risk. He'd seen this go wrong more than once, and he didn't want it to happen again. “You need to establish a connection with Cora’s implant, and.. prepare to transfer Pathfinder Authority to her. Understand?”

“There is still time, Ryder. There are reinforcements currently in-route, ETA is-“

“ _Now_ , SAM.” Scott interrupts, panting softly through the pain, and in the distance he hears a few rough, guttural sentences coming from the Angara that were still tracking him down. His mind is fuzzy but he actually recognizes one of the words from Jaal’s word-of-the-day bulletins; it meant ‘defeated’, and he can’t help but let out a shaky scoff.

Defeated was right.. He’d punch himself in the damn face right now if he had the strength to do it.

He’d been so blind. So damn stupid.

Maybe it was the blood loss but he doesn’t even remember what he’d even told himself in his moments alone, how he’d justified throwing everything aside for the brief satisfaction of revenge, but it seemed so petty and ridiculous now that he can’t believe anyone had ever had any faith in him as a leader.

He’d turned his back on them. His squad mates and crew, his mother and sister, everyone who'd ever cared about him and his well-being as part of his ragtag but perfect family. He'd betrayed his duties to the Nexus, and all the settlers and allies out there depending on him to help secure their homes and futures in Andromeda.

He’d let them all down, stormed away from his duties and abandoned his own morals just to prove a point to himself, just to satisfy a need for justice that wasn’t worth the price he was paying now. He’d forgotten what he stood for, made the worst mistake he’d ever made, and now he was going to die here, alone in some run down encampment.

They all deserved better.

He doesn’t want to think about what the others will think when they find his body, but he does anyway, because that's how Scott's mind likes to work. He just hopes they don’t blame themselves. They’d all tried reasoning with him, comforting him, and he’d brushed them all aside like they meant nothing.

Scott didn't deserve them. But hey, at least they still had Cora, right?

...

Cora..

Everything he did to her felt so much worse. He’d brushed her aside so harshly, and that stings more painfully than any wound he’s ever felt, including the one still oozing out blood. She’d tried to help him more than anyone, tried to get through that stubborn skull of his to bring him back to who he really was as he blamed himself and raged on, and he’d spat in the face of her efforts.

Scott closes his eyes, feeling the sudden prickle of tears welling up in them. Even if he couldn’t walk away from this he wanted her to know that he was sorry. He was sorry for ignoring her, sorry for ever trying to give her the ultimatum between their duties and revenge, and demanding that she go with him to satisfy his damned blood lust or be left behind with the rest. But most of all, he's sorry because now she head to bear the weight of being the Pathfinder instead of him.

She was a strong, capable woman, definitely more qualified than him in so many ways in spite of the doubts she’d often share with him when they were alone together. She could handle the duties and pressure that came with the job, but he knew she didn’t really want it anymore, not like she thought she had, and especially not since her inheriting the role would mean that he was dead.

“Fucking idiot,” he curses himself, and he hears the Roekarr around him briefly stop moving when they hear his voice, but then the footsteps start up again, closing in on his current location. Scott huffs as the steps get closer, drawing his hand back from his bleeding side to look at it, and he swallows thickly at the sight of the dark blood soaking his palm.

What would she feel, Scott suddenly wonders, when SAM entered her head to tell her that he was gone and she was the new Pathfinder?

He scoffs again, but halfway through this one it changes into a harsh sob. He’d really let her down, hadn’t he? She was his second, his best friend and lover, whose unconditional support and reasoning he’d ultimately disregarded when it mattered the most. She was one of the very few people in this galaxy he’d never, _ever_ wanted to disappoint, and now he was doing it in the worst possible way.

Scott exhales deeply, gripping his side again when he notices that the pain was starting to numb out again, which, after he gave it more than a second of thought, could not have been good. It takes effort to open his eyes again, vision blurring as a few tears finally slip out, and they cool instantly against his cheeks. His body's running hotter than usual. He’s tired, and he feels so weak, and his left arm is like lead as he raises it to activate his omni-tool, forearm shaking from the effort of staying up as he pulls up a picture of Cora.

It wasn’t even a properly taken picture. It’s blurry, and a little out of focus, just something he’d snapped during lunch one afternoon before he could help himself. Her frozen face beams back at him, and he manages a shaky smile. She'd been laughing at something that Vetra had been saying when Scott took it, and he can hear the sound in the back of his mind, and he thinks of the way her smile always made her eyes crinkle and shine.

The picture quality just didn’t do her or that moment justice, and yet it remained one of Scott’s favorite images of his girlfriend.

Damn, he loved her. He just wishes he’d shown in when it mattered most.

He raises the omni-tool to his face, his lips brushing across the holographic picture of Cora in a gentle kiss, and it’s nothing close to the real thing but it’s all he has now.

“I’m sorry..”

Movement to his right, barely visible in his fading vision, and he doesn’t need to look to know that it’s a Roekarr agent. Scott hears him call out to his companions with the worst kind of smugness, and his arms drops down limply at his side, omni-tool flickering off, and he feels a pang in his chest the second Cora's picture disappears. They’d found him.

Scott doesn’t bother facing his captor but lets out another shaky breath as he slumps back against the crate behind him, and he closes his eyes again. Damn him and his mistakes.

_Cora had deserved so much better._

"Pathfinder, I-"

“S-SAM.. Commence-“

A shot rings out, echoing in the stifling air of the warehouse, and Scott’s world goes dark.

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is there a part 4 coming up? It’s a mystery. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	16. From Very Far Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G. Some loyalty mission spoilers.  
> Prompt: The way you said “I Love You.“: #18 - 'From very far away.'
> 
> Also as a note, this chapter is not related to the previous chapter.

\-----

It had been nearly a month since Scott Ryder had disappeared.

It had been business as usual for the Nexus and its people the day it happened, but within hours of the Nexus getting the report there wasn’t a single outpost that hadn’t heard the news, and before the day was up it seemed that the entire cluster knew that the human Pathfinder was missing.

The news spread like a plague, from Aya to Voeld. Everyone demanded answers, wanting to know what had happened, what would be done to recover Ryder, what those under his command would do in his absence, and now, there are countless eyes turned towards the remaining team mates who hadn't disappeared with him.

Cora had stepped up as a temporary Pathfinder because she had to. She was – _is_ – Scott's second-in-command and she was quick to act like it. She faced their problems with the same sort of open-mind that he did, making the choices she was sure he would make and consulting the others when she had her doubts. She'd learned a lot about what kind of person Scott was - _is, damn it_ – during their time together, what sort of leader he strived to be, and she emulated it to the best of her abilities.

She hated every second of it. She didn't want to just replicate his presence and pretend it solved everything. She wanted Scott back.

But she still did the job she’d been trained to do, and stood behind Director Tann along with the other Pathfinders when he made his formal announcement about the ‘incident’, her arms folded behind her back and her jaw clenched so hard that it ached for an hour afterwards as she listened to the long-lasting speeches.

"Rest assured, all available resources are being put towards recovering the lost Pathfinder, and I am overseeing the search personally," Tann droned on, and Cora had heard Avitus scoff under his breath beside her. "Between current reports and our own confidence in the abilities of Pathfinder Ryder, he and his team will remain listed as M.I.A. until we have a viable reason to believe otherwise. But let me also say this: Pathfinder Ryder would not want us fretting in his absence..”

Cora had stopped listening after that, her mind going numb, and she can't even remember what all she had said when she'd been called up to make her own statement. She could probably find a vid about it if she really wanted to but she knows if she watches it then she'll just see her mask cracking all over again, and hear that damned warble in voice that she knew was there, even if the majority of the crowd had missed it.

Not everyone did though.

Avitus had taken her aside once the speeches were done and the crowds had started to thin out, and told her he hoped the spirits would protect Ryder and spare her from going through what he'd gone through when he'd taken over the Pathfinder position after losing Macen.

Raeka came up next and had almost hugged her but seemed to think better of it at the last second, and instead had just gripped Cora's shoulder and told her to not lose faith. If any of them had a history of beating the odds it was Ryder, Raeka had said, and her words were so sincere that in that moment Cora really believed it would be okay.

Even Sarrisa had approached her, things still cool between them after the incident on the Leusinia, where Scott had vouched for her to stay on as the Pathfinder but only after they'd exposed what she'd done to Matriarch Ishara. The smile Sarrisa gives her is a little strained but also somehow genuine, and she’d simply told Cora she was looking forward to the day they'd all welcome Ryder home together.

It just became too much after that, and Cora had led the crew away from the event and back onto the Tempest before they could be swarmed with any more questions or comments from the citizens, no matter how well-meaning any of them might have been.

Speaking of the crew, they only seem to handle everyone a little bit better than she did, which wasn’t really saying much, and it's not just Scott's absence they're feeling. After all, Vetra and Jaal had both disappeared along with their leader.

Cora sees how often Drack just paces in the crew quarters and the cargo bay, shooting glances towards the spots where Vetra usually stood, and each time his expression falls for just a moment before he huffs, turns away, and cleans his spotless guns again. He speaks to them all only briefly, and it becomes even more brief after he calls Liam ‘kid’ but without the same gruff affection that was present when he spoke to Scott.

Speaking of Liam, he was unusually reserved as well now that he was no longer hanging out with Jaal, and there are times when the Tempest is just terribly quiet without their usual banter in the background. Cora had worried for him at first but during one of their trips to the Nexus she spots him talking to Sid, and she's too far away to hear what they're saying but Liam's expression is kind, Sid is smiling for the first time in weeks since Vetra disappeared, and it eases some of the worries.

Peebee's not quite the same either, obviously feeling both Scott and Jaal's absence, and though it's a surprise to her, Cora actually finds herself bonding a little with the asari whenever they come across one another moping alone in a room. Peebee tries to teach Cora about the remnant, Cora tries sharing come of her commando stories. Neither of them have much real success and the tensions between them aren’t gone entirely but there's always new sense of camaraderie after every conversation.

Lexi puts on a brave face for a while until they’re talking around the research table one evening, and she idly comments that her job was far too easy now that she wasn't patching Scott up every day. But then suddenly her smile is joyless, and no one says anything when their doctor promptly excuses herself from the conversation, eyes unusually misty. An hour later, Cora walks into the crew quarters to find Lexi and Suvi sitting together, heads bowed as if they were both praying. Cora says nothing, just excuses herself wordlessly, and as she left her heart was hammering in her chest for reasons she doesn't fully understand.

It's Gil that tries to keep everyone's spirits up at first but with each passing day it seems to get harder and harder for him. They get no news, his confident reassurances come less often, and eventually he just gets sick of seeing the three empty chairs at their poker table. He stops hosting the games after that, but if anything good comes out of Gil giving up is the fact that he throws himself into his work, and his relationship with Kallo improves a little more as they go over various schematics and potential improvements for the Tempest to pass the time.

None of them really talk to Sara, or even visit her. Cora's not sure if it's fear, shame, or a mixture of both holding them all back, but Sara still e-mails her every day, attempting to make small talk before ultimately asking if they have any news on her brother yet, and Cora's heart breaks a little more each time she has to send back the same, disappointing reply.

The days go by. Cora wonders just how much longer she’ll have to carry this weight, but eventually they all find their rhythm under her leadership. There's still a bit of tension at first; she commands the same respect that Scott did but something about him just helped everyone click, allowing them to work alongside each other, and simply put, Cora just lacked that energy. The jobs still got done, if not as smoothly, and there just wasn't the same sense of victory afterwards.

Scott really did just make things better, for all of them..

But his absence continues without any successful searches being reported in despite how frequent they were, and by now Cora just has to keep herself busy, needs to have her mind constantly focused on some task or another or she’d do nothing but dwell on her fear that any second now SAM voice's would enter her head, telling her that Scott was gone and had passed on the Pathfinder authority to her.

Once that role was everything she trained for. She thought it would be such a defining part of her future in Andromeda, and then it felt like everything she’d done had been for nothing when the role passed over her and went to Scott. Then, ironically, him becoming the Pathfinder gave her the time and opportunities to really reflect on what her life could be instead, and resenting Scott for being chosen by Alec seemed like a memory from a lifetime ago.

Either way, that was then, before she knew who she was in this new galaxy,. Now she’d grown as a person, learned from her trials and mistakes. Most unexpectedly, she’d fallen in love along the way, with the man who took over the role she’d been groomed for, no less.. She knew what she wanted from her future now, and for the first time in a long while, it wasn’t the position she’d trained so hard for.

Her future was by his side, being his partner, leading their people together or someday just venturing out on their own.

She wanted the chance to wake up in their bed together some day as Cora Ryder, not wake up alone as Pathfinder Harper.

_“Living on our wits? Keeping each other warm at night? Sign me up!”_

She thought that was the way it would be after their victory on Meridian, when he’d pulled her into his arms and kissed her in front of the entire cluster to see, and she believed it then. She just needed to convince herself to believe it now.

Cora walks into their room, telling herself for the umpteenth time that she needs to straighten it up, but she knows she won’t. She doesn’t have the heart to move any of Scott’s things, or even do something as simple as pick up the shirt he’d discarded the day he’d disappeared. It was like doing anything would make it real, hit her with the reality that right now he was gone, and a small, scared part of her just didn’t want her mind to process the change.

_“Some things won’t change. Like you and me.”_

His side of the bed is still unmade, and her side is cold as she lies down, staring at the empty spot. She thinks of the countless mornings that she’s woken up to see him beside her, snoring softly, and looking so peaceful, like he wasn’t carrying the future of Andromeda on his shoulders.

She reaches over to pull his pillow against her chest before she buries her face into the plush cloth, as if trying to hide her tears from herself but then she breaths in his scent – it’s fading - and she can't stop them from falling now. Her body shakes as she bursts into tears, wishing more than anything that he'd walk through that door right now and flash her that smile of his that made her think everything would be okay.

She missed him. Damn it all, she missed him so badly that she could do nothing right now but ache and sob for him.

She just needed a sign, a fraction of a message, anything to help her believe that he was still alive out there somewhere. She could deal with him being lost because she could always find him, but him being gone entirely, and leaving her behind in a galaxy where she’d never hear his laugh or see his smile again?

An Andromeda without Scott. What sort of future would that be for her, or any of them?

She should’ve gone with him. She should’ve made sure they had more intel before he set out on the mission. She should’ve.. Well, there were countless things she should have done, and they were all nothing but regrets and what-ifs now.

She’d seen the hollow look that sometimes lingered in Avitus’ eyes after they learned of Macen’s death, and she’d seen the same thing before in Alec after he’d lost Ellen. Their loss and grief and anger, all of it constantly being felt with so few ways to cope that actually provided any sort of catharsis. She’d give anything to not know that pain..

_"Whatever we face, I'll always come back to you."_

“Come back, Scott.. Please..” Cora whispers into the side of the pillow, now wet with her tears, and she just needs to say the words, even if it’s from far away. “I love you..”

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes, last couple chapters were angsty.. More fluff coming soon! Probably!
> 
> Enjoying the story so far? Please feel free to leave a comment or even a request!


	17. 'Is That My Shirt'?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Scott/Cora  
> Rating: M.  
> Prompt: "Is that my shirt?"
> 
> Starring Ryder's new Blasto shirt. I was gonna do something funny but then this one decided to turn into a bit of smut. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

 -----

“Honey, I’m home!” Scott calls out with exaggerated cheer as he steps into his quarters, shrugging his jacket off and tossing it onto the back of his couch. He can see Cora sitting on their bed from the corner of his eye, probably going over her own work, though he doesn’t look over at her as he tugs his long-sleeved shirt off, exchanging it for one of his more comfortable t-shirts. He glances around as he tugs the shirt on, wondering what he’d done with his new Blasto shirt (best early birthday present ever, thank you Liam), but searching for it would take energy he doesn’t feel like exerting.

“Hey, sweetheart. How was the Nexus?” he hears Cora ask him. Scott leans back against the couch with a huff to kick his shoes off, not really caring which direction they flew off in, and he frowns at his girlfriend’s mention of the Nexus. Or rather, he frowns at the thought of the people who were currently running the Nexus, and also running him ragged in the process. Seemed like it was always something with them..

“Same as usual. Tann’s still got that stick lodged up his cloaca about the way I do things,” Scott replies, picking up his personal data pad from where he’d left it on the couch that morning, and he’s half-tempted to toss it back out of sight; he really does not want to go through the string of unanswered e-mails he can see on the screen. “I also went to see Addison against my better judgement so I’ve got a dozen reports from her to look over now..” 

He starts towards his desk, giving Cora a brief glance as he does but then he does a double-take, stopping mid-step and narrowing his eyes at her. “Is that my shirt?”

“Maybe,” Cora replies, lounging back against the pillows shamelessly with his Blasto shirt draped over her body, and she flashes him a smile, “But you weren’t wearing it, so..”

Betrayal! His brand new Blasto shirt, which he hadn’t even worn yet. The nerve! The gall! The..

Scott looks her over again, and it’s then that he realizes that his shirt was the _only_ thing she was wearing, and Cora’s smile widens, seeing that he’d finally noticed.

Scott swallows, his false indignation suddenly forgotten. Well, that definitely changed things..

“I was saving it for a special occasion.” Scott plays along, and drops his data pad onto the desk, his reports suddenly unimportant compared to her. Cora doesn’t take her eyes off of him as he strides towards the bed, and he’s likewise got his gaze fixed entirely on her.

She looked.. pretty damn good. The shirt was already a little large on him but on her it looked even bigger, draped loosely over her shoulders and giving him an excellent view of her neck and exposed collarbone. The neckline wasn’t low enough to see any cleavage but the front of the shirt hung loosely over the small swell of her breasts, and Scott feels a heat stirring below his belly.

“What kind of special occasion could possibly require a Blasto tank top?” Cora asks, then smirks when she sees that Scott was still a little too dumbstruck to actually answer her. Which of course was her goal all along.

He skims his eyes further down her body, taking in the way the shirt bunched up at her abdomen but then smoothed down along the curve of her hips, and it stopped just a few inches below the apex of her thighs. It’s both so revealing and not revealing enough, and either way Scott’s really struggling to take his eyes off of her.

“Enjoying the view?” Cora finally asks, regaining his attention, and it takes a bit of effort on his part to raise his gaze towards hers. He smirks when he sees the knowing look she was giving him, and moves to kneel against the edge of the bed beside her. Cora just lays back again, watching him expectantly as he leans towards her, bracing his arms on either side of her waist.

“You know I am,” Scott replies before he moves himself towards the middle of the bed, swinging his leg over hers to straddle her lap. Cora smiles, looking him over as she reaches up to brush her hands along his waist, fingers slipping under the under the fabric of his t-shirt and tracing against his sides. Scott grins and he leans down towards her, pressing a soft kiss to her nose before claiming her mouth in a searing kiss.

Cora responds to it immediately, whimpering softly into his mouth before her lips slowly part, and Scott tilts his head to deepen the kiss, brushing his tongue out against hers. He groans when he tastes her, tongues curling together as he reaches one hand up to trace his fingers through her hair. She leans into his hand without breaking the kiss and he gently scratches at her scalp, drawing soft noises of satisfaction from her.

It’s only when they both need to breathe that Scott finally breaks away from her and draws his head back, idly wondering if he looked as dazed as she did, and he feels her hands move from his hips to his lower back and then down to his ass, giving it a firm squeeze. Scott grunts, rutting his hips down against hers, and he smirks as the soft gasp it tears from her.

“Impatient.” Scott accuses playfully.

“Eager.” Cora corrects with a smile that matches his, moving one hand up to cup the back of his head and pull him down into another slow, heated kiss. Scott shifts forward, bracing one hand against the headboard while the other settles against Cora’s bare thigh, letting his fingers trace over the smooth skin as his hand travels up towards her hip.

Cora sighs softly against his mouth when his fingers start to brush under the fabric of the shirt and Scott breaks the kiss against, panting softly before he moves his mouth to her neck, kissing and nipping and coaxing out those quiet moans from her that he loved so much.

“You look good in my shirt,” Scott whispers between short, biting kisses, lips and teeth working against the length of her neck, and though they’re normally careful to not leave any visible marks on one another he really has to refrain himself from biting down too hard right now. “Might let you steal my clothes more often..”

“You sweet talker,” Cora replies, the two of them exchanging grins before Scott moves his mouth back onto her neck, tracing wet kisses down the length of her throat, and teeth grazing against the smooth ridge of her collarbone before he reaches the neckline of the shirt. He draws back, and reaches for the hem of the Blasto shirt just as Cora sits up and pushes against his shoulder, turning them both around and pinning Scott down onto his back beneath her.

He blinks up at her as his head hits the bed but then he grins, getting a smirk from Cora in return. She moves up to straddle his lap, bracing her hands against his chest, and Scott has to bite down a moan when she grinds herself down against him. If he wasn’t already getting hard before.. 

“I’m guessing you wanna keep the shirt on?”

“For now,” Cora replies as she shifts forward again, and Scott inhales sharply at the sudden stroke of friction. Cora pauses, taking in his reaction, and then rolls her hips again, harder this time. He lets out a soft moan, his hands moving to push the Blasto shirt further up her body so he could grasp her bare hips and pull her down to rub against his erection, and this time the rough movement leaves the both of them whimpering.

It takes a moment to find a rhythm that works for them both but once they find it Cora rocks her hips against his at a slow but steady pace, her sex brushing down against his clothed cock with each hard roll of her hips. Scott tries to watch but he can only keep it up for a few seconds before his head falls back against the bed again, and now it’s a struggle just to keep his eyes open. A part of him wants to just to focus on the feeling but he wants to watch her more, and he reaches up to tug a pillow beneath his head.

He watches her move against him now through hooded eyes, taking in the steady sway of her hips and the way her breasts bounced lightly beneath his loose shirt each time she rocked forward. He feels his cock twitch between them, throbbing as it strained against his sweat pants, and he groans again. Damn she was good at this..

Cora doesn’t stop moving, crying out softly each time she grinds her clit against the outline of his stiff cock and her little breathless noises are a symphony to him, and nearly enough to send him over the edge. The heat below his belly builds hotter and hotter and Scott closes his eyes again, trying to make this last a little longer but Cora’s pace is relentless and perfect, chafing him a little but fuck, it still feels _so good_..

He moans low in the back of his throat, his breath starting to come out in short, uneven gasps as he gets closer to reaching his peak, and his hands faintly tremble as he slides them from her hips and down to the curve of her ass, rutting upwards in rhythm against hers and creating more of that delicious friction. Cora gasps as he grinds up against her before she leans forward, bracing her hands against his broad chest.

“S-Scott..” Cora whimpers, and he can tell from the waver in her voice that she’s getting close. He quickly moves one of his hands to her stomach, pushing the fabric of the shirt upwards as he splays his palm against her lower belly, before rubbing this thumb against her clit in rough, tight circles. Cora gasps above him before grasping his wrist with one hand, rocking herself against the pressure of his thumb once, twice before she coming _hard_ with his name on her lips, the nails of her other hand digging into his chest.

Scott gasps as she comes apart above him, his thighs clenching against his before he suddenly sits up, wrapping an arm around her waist to turn them back around and pushing her down into the mattress beneath them. He quickly settles himself between her legs and grinds his erection down against her wet sex, his eyes shutting again. He was close now, so close, but not there yet..

He buries his face into the crook of Cora’s neck, breathing hard and muffling his moans against her skin. Cora digs her nails into his shoulder blades as she arches up against him, the Blasto shirt riding up further along her body as Scott keeps pumping his hips, desperately trying to catch his own release.

“C’mon Scott..” Cora pants into his ear before she gives the side of his neck a sharp nip, right below his jawline, and Scott finally follows her over the edge with a loud, shaky groan, his hips bucking roughly against hers. Oh it's good, _so good,_ and nearly steals the breath from his lungs. Cora holds him close as he comes apart in her arms before he finally stills and slumps against her, panting hard against the side of her neck.

It takes a few long moments before either of them can actually move and Scott rolls off of her with a grunt, flopping over onto his back and trying to catch his breath. He feels himself softening in his pants as his quickened heart rate pounds in his ears, though it’s slowly returning to its normal pace.

He looks over at Cora, who still looked just as breathless and flushed as he did, and he holds her gaze for a long moment before the two of them burst into laughter.

“That was..” Cora starts before she trails off with a shake of her head, still grinning, and Scott looks away, draping an arm across his face as something close to embarrassment starts to hit him. He hadn’t cum in his pants since he was a teenager but damned if that wasn’t worth it..

“Awesome as hell?” Scott offers after a moment. Cora smiles as she sits up, leaning over to press a kiss to his lips before she brushes her fingers through his disheveled hair affectionately, smoothing it back into place. Scott leans into her touch with a soft, happy sigh, closing his eyes again. Part of him wants to sleep now that he’s sated but he still has another pressing issue to deal with first..

“Gonna need a shower now,” he mutters aloud, brow furrowing as he wriggles his hips and becomes increasingly aware of the uncomfortable stickiness drying against his groin. Cora hums softly and almost apologetically as she kisses his cheek, but when Scott opens his eyes she just looks smug. He sticks his tongue out, prompting another short laugh from her. “I blame you.”

“I should hope so,” Cora replies, kissing him again before she sits up and pulls the Blasto shirt off, and beside her Scott lets out a soft, disapproving whine. “What? It’s too sweaty for that now..”

“Fine, but next time it’s clean remind me to let you steal it again,” Scott grins, pulling Cora down into another slow kiss before he nudges their foreheads together, and then he smiles up at her a playful look in his eyes. “So, shower with me?”

\-----


	18. 'I can’t stop thinking about you.'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Scott/Cora ( Implied. Pre-Relationship. )  
> Prompt: 38. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”
> 
> Like chapter 12, this one is set in my ‘Sara is Pathfinder’ canon~

 

\-----

The sooner they finished taking out the remains of the Kett forces the better.

Even with the Archon gone they’d maintained a presence in Andromeda, albeit a much smaller one, but they were still a threat, and after weeks of hitting their facilities and camps Cora was just plain tired of dealing with them.

It had taken two squads to clear out the last known Kett facility on Elaaden. Sara led the main squad with Peebee and Liam, while Cora had taken Scott and Jaal in as their back-up. Between the two teams it hadn’t taken them long to wipe out the dozens of Kett stationed there, even with the unexpected drop ship that had brought in more reinforcements halfway through the battle.

But by the time the drop ship showed up, unsurprisingly, the others had turned the fight into a game of ‘Who Can Solo Kill the Most Kett’. Sara had protested a bit when the others agreed that SAM gave her an unfair advantage and thus disqualified her, so she and her AI had more or less kept track of their scores. In the end Jaal was declared the winner with twenty two solo kills, though it didn’t stop the others from repeatedly comparing their own scores during the aftermath. (Cora got seventeen kills herself, but who was counting?)

It’s Liam’s idea to blow up the facility before they leave, and he’d pouted for a half-hour when the team agreed that it didn’t count towards his score.

Cora’s squad gets back to the Tempest first, since the Pathfinder still had to report their success to the nearby Initiative outpost, and Cora’s already changed out of her armor and put her weapons away by the time Sara and the others get back. Jaal had already returned to his own quarters to rest but Scott was lingering nearby, still clad in his armor, though his weapons had been put away. She catches him glancing at her a couple times, and he always smiles but otherwise says nothing, and he only gets up from where he’s sitting when Sara’s shuttle comes in.

“-helped with at least six and I got twelve solo kills,” Liam’s saying as he strides into the cargo bay behind Sara, and he almost looks indignant when Peebee snorts beside him. “What? Like you didn’t keep track too, Ms. Nine-Measly-Kills!” He turns away from their asari companion just as Peebee sticks her tongue out at him, and Liam’s eyes light up when he sees that Scott was still nearby. “How ‘bout you, Scott? You keep up with your score in battle back there?”

Scott looks up from the quiet conversation he’d been having with Sara, blinking hard. His sister, meanwhile, just pats his shoulder and heads towards her locker to pack up her own things.

“Um.. yeah,” Scott answers after a moment, seeming briefly surprised to be addressed directly, but then he smiles as he walks over to join Liam and Peebee by the lockers, looking a little more at ease as he finally starts to strip off his outer layers of armor. “It was only seven or eight, I think? Took out a couple heavies myself but it was mostly adhi going after me. Got some good shots in on that fiend though, before Sara finished it off.”

Liam’s beaming now, the usual hesitation around Scott apparently forgotten as they continued to talk about their personal successes throughout the fight. It’s not one-sided on Liam’s part either, with Scott remaining an increasingly enthusiastic part of the conversation, and it keeps going even as Peebee joins in, which of course lures Drack into the room as well. He hadn’t gone on this mission, since Lexi had ordered him to rest for at least a day, but nothing caught his attention like a good post-battle discussion.

Cora smiles as she listens, glad to see that Liam’s people skills were once again bringing Scott a little closer to the team, and when she glances over towards their Pathfinder she sees that Sara was watching them as well, looking equally as happy.

It must’ve been such a relief to her, seeing Scott getting closer to his old self. Cora’s pretty sure that Sara only confides how much she really worried about her brother to her and Lexi, but seeing him talking and joking with the crew now was a tremendous step, especially considering how he’d been when he first cam aboard the Tempest, following Sara around like a lost puppy or just lingering in his own quarters, only coming out long enough to eat or to attend on of Lexi’s daily check-ups.

“He’s definitely better on the Tempest than he was while stuck on the Nexus,” Sara had said to her one morning cycle over coffee, before she’d given Cora an unexpected smile. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed that there’s a little something between you two.”

At the time her words had made Cora blush, and she’d muttered a quiet denial into her mug, but Sara’s words had inwardly pleased her as well. It was a wonderful feeling, knowing that her presence could help Scott’s recovery, and yes, Cora had made her fair share of mistakes since coming to Andromeda but getting close to Scott wasn’t one of them, and she wasn’t naive enough to miss the way he acted around her.

It was probably why Sara always brought Cora along whenever she took her brother out on missions, and though it was largely unspoken Scott just.. did better when she was around him. Sara had noticed it, the rest of the crew had noticed it, and the only reason Cora didn’t really believe that they were exaggerating was because, well, she liked it.

Scott was getting noticeably better every day, even if it was only a little bit at a time. He was spending more of his free time with the squad, sometimes getting actively involved in a discussion or just sitting nearby while they talked, and his smiles and laughter came easier now. He’d even joined them for Gil’s latest poker game, and though he was the first to retire that night it had gotten pretty late before he finally excused himself.

He still had nightmares and some moments where he blamed himself for the fight on Meridian, Sara had confided in Cora one evening, but he was closer to his old self than she’d seen in months, that old confidence and humor coming back more every day, and the best of it always seemed to come out when Cora was nearby.

It hadn’t taken anyone long to notice that Scott sought her out more than anyone; he always took the seat closest to her, always stood beside her during their team meetings, stuck close to her in combat – but never tried to play the hero-, and whenever they stopped at the Nexus he was right there, looking both shy and hopeful as he asked her if she wanted any company while running her errands.

Anyone else and it might have annoyed Cora, but for whatever reason Scott was her very special exception.

Sara and Scott clear out of the cargo bay first, with one Ryder heading up to the bridge and the other to their quarters. Liam, Peebee, and Drack leave a few minutes later, still comparing their kills – by which she meant Liam and Peebee were still bragging while Drack was telling him both how he’d have done things with half the effort and twice the efficiency– and Cora returns to her usual post, checking over her most recent reports on the terminal, and several minutes pass by slowly before she hears someone come back in the room.

Scott’s standing a few yards away from her when Cora glances back over her shoulder, apparently having left long enough to change into one of his casual outfits, though he wasn’t looking directly at her. Rather, he was looking around the cargo bay, as if trying to make sure that no one else was nearby, but with Gil tucked away in his own work space and Vetra still making her calls to various contacts behind a locked door it was just the two of them, at least for the moment

“Hey Scott,” Cora calls over to him and his attention snaps to her. She bites back a smile when she sees his expression, which strongly resembled a puppy that had just been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to. Did he even know how endearing he could be at times? “Are you looking for Sara?”

“No,” Scott replies quietly, and he seems to be weighing something in his mind before he walks towards her. Cora just watches him, curious. “I.. I wanted to talk to you.”

“About what?” Cora answers, offering him a small smile that seems to put him a little more at ease. Scott smiles back at her, another good sign, but he still looks nervous as he comes to a stop beside her terminal, leaving only about a foot of space between the two of them. He opens his mouth to reply but then hesitates, looking everywhere but at her, and though her patience doesn’t wane she leads towards him, trying to encourage him to speak. “Scott-”

“I can’t stop thinking about you!” Scott suddenly blurts out and both of them freeze, startled by the outburst. For a moment Scott looks completely stricken, a blush starting to spread over his face and ears, but then he swallows and takes a deep breath. “I mean.. You’ve been on my mind a lot, lately, Cora, and I really hope I don’t sound like a total creep or anything for saying this, but..”

He glances away as he pauses, one hand coming up to rub at the back of his neck, but when he meets her gaze again he looks much more sincere than embarrassed.

“I just wanted to say thank you for always putting up with me, bringing me along, and.. for just being you,” he continues, and Cora feels a pleasant warmth spread through her chest when he smiles. “It’s really meant a lot, and I don’t fully understand why, but just being near you helps me, and.. lately it’s been pretty hard trying to get you off my mind and at the same time, I don’t want to.”

Another silence falls between them but it’s comfortable this time, both of them just taking a moment to process what had just been said. She’s a little stunned, but now Cora can’t keep herself from smiling, and Scott’s eyes never leave hers.

“I’ve.. been thinking a lot about you lately as well,” Cora finally says, beaming at the way Scott visibly brightens at that. “About us, and whatever this is between us. Maybe we don’t need to understand it just yet, but I like it. I’m glad I can help, and maybe it goes without saying, but for the record being around you helps me too.”

“Really?” Scott asks softly, looking a little disbelieving but he sounds so damn hopeful that her chest flutters again.

“Of course, Scott,” Cora replies with a warm smile. “You’re a sweet, wonderful person. How could anyone not enjoy being around someone as charming as you?”

“I guess I am pretty charming,” Scott replies, almost shyly, and then that familiar shine coming back into his eyes as he smiles down at her. “And the same goes for being around someone as smart, talented, and wonderful as you, Cora.”

Cora feels a heat bloom across her cheeks at his unexpected words. “So that’s what you see?” she asks, unable to keep the note of surprise out of her voice. No one had used words like that to describe her in.. well, ever. Scott nods back at her, his expression softening.

“It’s what I’ve always seen, even before we left the Milky Way.”

“Charming _and_  a sweetheart,” Cora continues, shaking her head with a small smile and trying to fight back the blush that’s threatening to spread. “What’s a girl to do?”

“Well, if you’re really open to suggestions.. Maybe the next time we’re on the Nexus we can spend some time together? Aside from running errands together, I mean..” Scott says, but then he blinks, his brow furrowing. “Not saying that I don’t like going with you on your errands, cause obviously I do, I just meant.. I don’t know, something more casual? Like..”

“A new drink shop just opened up in the Commons,” Cora offers after he trails off, and he perks up again. “It’s probably just Angaran fruit smoothies right now but Suvi and Lexi both swear by it, and I’ve been meaning to go see what all the fuss was about.”

“It’s a date then,” Scott replies promptly, only looking embarrassed by his words for a moment before he’s smiling again, and his gaze briefly darts to her work station as he folds his arms over his chest. “So, what’re you working on right now?”

He sounds genuinely interested, so Cora turns back towards her terminal, and as she tells him about the details of her latest reports and assignments neither of them notice their Pathfinder lingering in the doorway behind them, or the warm smile on Sara’s face as she watches the pair of them.

\-----


	19. "You're Really Soft."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Scott/Cora  
> Prompt: 33. “You’re really soft.”
> 
> Prompted by tlcinbflo on Tumblr~  
> One of these days I won’t let the length of these drabbles get away from me. Today is not that day.

\-----

The rational part of her feels like they’re just wasting water at this point, but tonight’s one of the few nights that Cora had decided to ignore her internal voice of reason, and had instead convinced herself that after the day they’d had, a long shower was more than deserved.

She and Scott had been up since early that morning, scouting out another potentially habitable new world somewhere on the outskirts of the Zaubray system with Drack, and what should have just been a few hours of recon and exploration turned into a firefight against an unexpected Kett presence.

They’d hit several camps scattered all over, finding evidence of a larger base somewhere on the unnamed planet, and Scott had called down another squad as SAM pinpointed the location of the main encampment, deeming their presence too much of a threat to ignore. They still had two more monoliths to find, which would hopefully clear up the seismic activity that shook the ground under their feet every few hours, and the last thing they needed was kett striking against them every step of the way.

The encampment was located and hit within the hour, with Scott taking Drack and Liam in on one side while Cora, Peebee, and Jaal rushed from the other. Vetra had stayed up on a hill near the Nomad to take her targets down with a sniper rifle but also to keep a look-out for any incoming dangers. It was fortunate that she did, since not only did the kett have two drop ships of reinforcements come in but the chaos had lured in a few eirochs and a pack of wild adhi as well. Why the Andromeda wildlife always rushed towards the gunfire and flames, Cora would never understand.

The battle had nearly gone sideways after that. The eirochs were, for whatever reason, more interested in attacking the Pathfinder team than the kett, and one of them had grabbed Jaal and nearly broken his leg before Scott and Cora had rescued him at the last second with a biotic combo. They’d all had to focus their attention on taking out the attacking beasts first, which had given the Kett time to regroup and lock themselves into the various prefabs scattered around the area.

SAM had gotten all the door unlocked by the time all the creatures were dead, of course, but the eirochs and adhi hadn’t gone down without a fight, and most of them were bruised and bitten by the time they turned their focus to taking out the kett holed up in the buildings.

That hadn’t gone as smoothly as they would’ve liked either; one of the doors was rigged with explosives by some kett willing to die if it meant taking them out. The explosion didn’t kill them, thanks to Cora and Peebee hastily throwing up some shields, but Scott had still been thrown back about 15 feet and Liam had to be retrieved from the battlefield by Vetra when he started to show signs of a concussion after the blast knocked him back against a kett rover.

By the time the last kett was dead they were ill-tempered and exhausted, all of them covered in various bruises, blood, and scrapes, and most were so tired that the Tempest had to fly in to retrieve them, rather than just shuttling the team back to their own temporary camp with the Nomad and resting there.

Lexi was waiting in the cargo bay when they all limped in, and had nearly had a conniption when she saw the state they were in. She’d even called Suvi in to help her patch up the worst of their injuries, while Scott told Kallo to head for the Nexus. They literally trusted Lexi with their lives but she was just one doctor with limited supplies versus a very battered team.

By the time they got back to the Nexus and had gotten everyone patched up to the joint satisfaction of Dr. T’Perro and Dr. Carlyle nearly six hours had passed since the battle had ended, and Cora and Scott were nearly dead on their feet. They opted to go to Scott’s rarely used apartment rather than make the trek back to the Tempest, where they’d been for the past hour. The apartment went largely unused, but there were times like now that they were both very thankful that he had it.

They’d spent about fifteen minutes of that hour lounging on his couch before getting up and into the shower that they were currently enjoying, keeping each other upright as they scrubbed away sweat, blood, and who the hell knew what else off of their body, all the while being mindful of each others bruises and scrapes, and though being under the hot water had woken them up a little their mutual weariness was still evident.

Again, the shower had probably lasted too long already but damned if they hadn’t earned it.

Scott had pulled her close once they were both clean enough and she’d been leaning against him for the past few minutes as they stood under the warm spray of water, her head against his chest as she listens to the soft beat of his heart. Scott’s head was currently resting on top of hers, and if it weren’t for him frequently nuzzling his cheek into her hair she might’ve thought he’d fallen asleep where he stood.

One of them probably would doze off if they didn’t get out soon but the warm water feels fantastic against her sore body and she’s seeing very little appeal to withdrawing from Scott’s embrace, as enticing as the thought of going to sleep might be at that moment. Scott likewise seems to be in no hurry to move, holding her close as he gently sways the two of them in place, and letting out a happy little sigh when she presses a soft kiss to his wet collarbone.

Eventually Scott stirs against her, moving his head back just far enough to brush his lips against her forehead. She smiles as she watches him; his eyes are shut, a look of pure contentment on his face as he steps closer to her, gently nudging his nose against hers as he leans down and presses a warm kiss to her lips.

Cora hums softly as she reciprocates, and the kiss is sloppy and unhurried and still so perfect. He reaches up to rub his hands along her shoulders when he finally draws back again, flashing her a smile as she lays her head against his shoulder.

Scott turns to kiss her cheek, nuzzling their heads together. She feels his hands slide from her shoulders and down along the slight curve her back, stopping just above her backside, but his movements are slow and almost lazy. There’s no obvious intent behind the touches even as he pulls her a little closer to him, his palms sliding towards her hips and up along her sides, and Cora squirms when the light brushes from his fingertips started to tickle.

She raises her head from his shoulder to look at him, smiling when she sees that it takes Scott several seconds to respond, slowly blinking his eyes open to meet her gaze. “Hm?”

“What’re you doing?”

“Struggling to stay awake, mostly..”Scott mumbles before he leans his head back down, eyes closing as he nuzzles his forehead against hers, and his hands stroke her sides before settling once more on the curve of her hips. “You’re really soft..”

“Probably because I’m soaking wet,” Cora replies before she can catch herself, and she tries not to roll her eyes when Scott raises his head up again, opening his eyes as he gives her a borderline lecherous grin. “Don’t flatter yourself, pal. The shower gets all the credit this time.”

“Aww.. Not even partial credit for me?” Scott asks with a half-wounded look, and Cora huffs out a laugh, shaking her head before she kisses him again. Scott pouts a little as she draws back, though it doesn’t last long before he’s smiling again. “Fine, but in my defense I’m running on fumes right now..”

“You and me both, sweetheart,” Cora replies before a yawn escapes her, as if admitting that she was exhausted had reminded her body just how long and bruising their day had been. Scott hums softly in reply, kissing her nose again before he steps away to shut the water off. They forego grabbing their fresh change of clothes, instead just toweling themselves off enough so that they wouldn’t drip any water onto the floor before the two of them exit the bathroom, making a beeline for the bed across the room.

Scott flops down onto the mattress first as soon as Cora pulls back the blanket, stretching out across his side with a satisfied groan as she settles in beside him. They scoot towards each other immediately and Scott pulls her close as she tucks herself up against his side, laying her head on his shoulder. He presses his head close to hers, breathing in the scent of shampoo still clinging to her damp hair before kissing her forehead. Cora tilts her head back to look up at him, cupping his stubbled cheek in her hand and smiling as he leans into the contact.

“Wouldn’t mind sleeping for the next twenty-four hours,” Scott mumbles after Cora draws her hand back, sitting up just enough to pull the blankets over their bare bodies and Cora closes her eyes, humming a soft agreement. They probably could, with no pressing missions lined up for tomorrow, but her internal clock hadn’t let her sleep in since she was a teenager. But if nothing else she could at least enjoy a day of just lounging around with the man she loved.

Scott exhales deeply, his own eyes sliding shut as he snuggles down into the bed, his left arm coming up to wrap around her middle and hold her against him, and Cora can’t help but smile at how secure and safe she feels right now in his arms. She presses herself closer to Scott, one hand coming up to rest against his chest, her fingers tracing random patterns until it draws a low, content grunt from him.

She’s almost asleep when Scott lets out a soft noise, starting to stir beside her. “How’d I get so lucky?” he mutters into her ear, and Cora tilts her head to look up at him again. A sleep smile tugs at his mouth but his eyes are still closed, and now she’s wondering if he even knows he’s speaking out loud. It wasn’t the first time he’d talked to her while half-asleep. “Most amazing woman in two galaxies.. falls for a dope like me..”

Cora watches him for another moment, looking for any sign that he was awake and very much aware of what he was saying but he doesn’t stir again, his breathing evening out and now she was pretty sure he was asleep. She smiles again, burying her face into his chest as a soft blush heats her face.

Right now, she was pretty sure that she was the lucky one.

\-----


	20. “Hey, have you seen the..? Oh.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally found the time to resume working on my pending Coryder prompts, and it feels good to be writing these dorks again~

\-----

‘Kinda looks like a rose,’ Scott thinks to himself as he plucks the little flower from the potted bush, twirling the stem between his fingers to spin it around. It really looked more like a chrysanthemum – which he only knew how to pronounce because those had been his mother’s favorites – than it did a rose, but it was close enough, with thin, layered red petals that lightened to a pretty pink near the tips. The color of the stem was more blue than green but it had no thorns to pluck off at least, plus it smelled nice, and..

Scott scoffs at himself under his breath because he’s definitely over thinking this. It wasn’t a rose, but Cora would probably like it anyway, even if it wasn’t her favored flower.

He thanks the scientist for letting him take the ‘sample’ before he heads out of the building, squinting a little in the bright of Kadara’s sun. It wasn’t nearly as bright here as it was on Eos or Elaaden, but at least they had a breeze there. The air on Kadara always seemed so still, especially in a valley.

His mind was getting off topic. He had a flower to deliver.

If nothing else he at least knows that humans can handle these flowers without worry; a few Angaran scientists had brought in flora samples from Aya for the scientists here to study and they’d been handling them all week without any negative effects. Scott can think of worse ways to go, but ‘Pathfinder killed by allergic reaction to pretty flower’ would still be a terrible headline.

He finds Cora on the far side of the outpost, helping the settlers sort through Ditaeon’s latest shipment of supplies, and Scott smiles to himself as he watches his second.

He loves watching her work, hearing her speak and act with a confidence that he knew she didn’t always feel, but he was probably the only one who knew about her more secretive insecurities. She knew about his too, of course, which is largely what helped them adapt to being leaders. As long as they could play the parts and be what the people needed them to be then these outposts would thrive, and so far it was working.

_Go team!_

“Three of the food crates go to the galley, the rest into storage, and remember to set up the dextro food with the labels visible,” Cora says to a pair of workers as Scott walks up to stand behind her, still twirling the little flower in his hands. Her head turns towards him a little, just enough to acknowledge his presence without facing him. “One box of the medical supplies goes up to the port, and the rest to the infirmary.”

“I see you’re keeping busy,” Scott comments, reaching over to gently brush his hand along Cora’s lower back, and though she doesn’t look up from the data pad he feels her press back against his hand. “Should I get you a whip to crack over their heads? You’d probably look hot with a whip.”

“Hey, we can’t all run around chasing kett and playing with the Remnant,” Cora replies, her teasing tone matching his as she types something into the data pad. “Some of us have to see to it that the manual work gets done.”

“What? I’ll have you know that I love manual labor. I could watch it all day.” Scott replies, smiling again when he hears her laugh. Speaking of things he could do all day, listening to her laugh was one of them. He loved it, even more so when he was the one drawing it out of her.

“I’ll bet you could. But that reminds me, have you seen the-?” Cora starts as she turns around to face him but trails when she spots the flower he was holding only a few inches in front of her face. She blinks. "Oh."

“For you,” Scott says helpfully, his smile returning as she takes the flower from him. He brushes a hand against the back of his neck then, feeling unexpectedly bashful. “I know you’d like a rose more but some turian just snatched the last bouquet before I could get to it. Y’know how it is.”

For a moment Cora doesn’t answer as she examines the flower, setting her data pad down onto a nearby supply crate before gently tracing the fingers of that hand over the petals and Scott feels his face warming up pleasantly when she looks up at him with that tender smile, her eyes shining with affection.

“It’s beautiful, Scott,” Cora says, cupping the back of his head with her free hand and pulling him down into a soft kiss, which Scott returns eagerly as he settles his hands on her waist, pressing himself closer while taking care to not accidentally crush the flower between them, and they’re both smiling when they finally break away from each other. “Thank you.”

“Anything for my girl,” Scott replies, nudging their noses together with another soft smile. “Probably should’ve given it to you in a more romantic setting but I wanted you to have it before I head out.”

“Going to clear out the rest of those kett camps?” Cora asks, which Scott affirms with a nod, and Cora smiles again. “Good. I thought I was going to have to put you to work if you just kept wandering around like a lost dog.”

“Hey, we can’t all spend the day unpacking crates,” Scott says, grinning as he steals another kiss from his smiling girlfriend. “Like you said, some of us have to go chase kett and play with the Remnant. Gonna take Liam and Peebee with me, since they’re already fighting over who gets shotgun next anyway.”

“Go save the day then, Pathfinder,” Cora says, patting his shoulder affectionately before withdrawing from his embrace and retrieving her discarded data pad. “And just for the record, Peebee got shotgun last time.”

“Noted!” Scott calls over his shoulder as he heads towards the Nomad and his bickering companions, and the sooner they got underway the sooner they’d be back here so he could return to Cora’s side. He just had to kick some kett butt first.

They’re back within an hour.

The mission went as smooth as expected, with the Badlands now was cleared of four different kett camps, and as Scott climbs out of the Nomad he sees Cora still working nearby, the flower carefully tucked behind her ear now, and the sight of her sends that familiar warm flutter through his chest.

He knows he’s grinning like a fool, and behind him he can hear Liam and Peebee teasing him about it but right now he just can’t take his eyes off of Cora, or stop thinking about how the little flower did something he hadn’t thought possible and made her look even more beautiful.

They didn’t have roses in Heleus yet but they had this, and right now it was more than enough.

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Additionally, I would like to thank everyone for all the wonderful comments I've gotten on this story lately! I haven't had the time to reply to some of them lately but I've read them all and seeing you guys enjoy these chapters make me even more eager to work on more! Shout out especially to Deb - I've loved every comment you've left!
> 
> Thanks again for the praises and feedback! <3


	21. Falling.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Scott/Cora  
> Prompt: 'Falling'.

\-----

A surprise eiroch really packs one hell of a punch, and Scott’s on his back with the wind knocked right out of his lungs before he even registers what had happened. His shields probably just saved him from broken ribs but there’s sure to be a massive, fist-shaped bruise on his torso later, and he’s still dazed as he gasps softly to replace some of the air he’d just lost.

Stupid giant alien gorilla-bear thing.. _Gorillear? Bearilla? Whatever, focus on breathing Scott._

He feels a sudden static in the air, hears the familiar sound of honed biotics striking hard against a target, and Scott feels the shaky thud of the eiroch’s body hitting the ground. He still hasn’t moved to sit up when a familiar face comes into view above him, her trained eyes checking him over for any visible injuries or signs of a concussion, and he sees some of the worry in those beautiful eyes lessen when he gives her a dazed grin.

“You know this is usually where I’d deliver a great line about me falling for you, but I think the eiroch kind of ruined the mood..” Scott says, and Cora closes her eyes, sighing as a mix of relief and exasperation flits over her face. But then she smiles as she reaches down to pull him back to his feet, and the sight of it makes him feel a little better. He always thought the whole ‘falling in love with a smile’ thing was a metaphor before he met her.

“I’ll take the poorly-timed jokes as a sign that you’re okay,” Cora says as she hauls him upright. Scott grasps onto her shoulder after the movement makes him a little dizzy, and then slouches forward because his torso still hurts and is probably in the process of bruising. "You okay, sweetheart?"

“Just a big dent in my torso, nothing Lexi can’t fix,” Scott tries to grin at his Second but it turns into more of a grimace - stupid punchy eiroch - and he sighs gratefully as Cora moves his arm to wrap around her shoulder, letting him lean on her as they head back towards the Nomad.

“Looks like I’m driving back,” Vetra says when she comes around the vehicle and spots the pair of them hobbling over, and Scott’s too sore right now to enforce his usual ‘Only Pathfinder Drives’ policy. He just gives Vetra a nod of affirmation, settling himself into the rear seat and leaning back so he can breathe a little easier. Vetra, meanwhile, tries to not seem too excited but the twitch of her mandibles are a dead giveaway, and even Cora smiles at the turian’s poorly-hidden enthusiasm as they as she climbs into the passenger’s seat.

Vetra’s driving is a lot smoother than his own and they don’t slip off the road or crash into any rock formations on the way. Whatever. He’s still funnier.

Cora keeps an eye on him as they head back to Ditaeon but each time their gazes meet Scott gives her a smile, assuring him that he was feeling better now that he’d caught his breath and gotten off his feet. She eventually stops checking but then she reaches a hand back towards him and Scott’s quick to grasp it in his, gently rubbing his knuckles against her thumb as they ride in comfortable silence.

He might not have been able to use his super smooth line earlier, but Scott knows he’s still falling for Cora in so many little ways.

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A small update but an update nonetheless! I really need to write more fluff of these two.


	22. A Sister's Perspective

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A chapter about the events leading up to the start of Scott and Cora's relationship, from the point of view of Pathfinder Sara, who brings her brother onto the Tempest after the battle for Meridian.
> 
> I actually started this one months ago and kept rewriting parts of it and actually scrapped it completely a couple times but finally managed to get it done~

\-----

“You beat me out of medical again,” Scott says with a smile, but if he’d been trying to make a joke it falls a little short.

Sara knows Scott too well, she’s been able to read him with ease since they were toddlers, and she knows when his humor is sincere and when he’s trying to lighten a bad mood. In this case it’s clearly the latter, but she smiles back at him anyway because right now he just needs her to.

“So,” Scott continues, his weak smile fading. “How long have I been out this time?”

“Not too long,” Sara assures him before his tone can become more self-deprecating than it already is. “Just a couple of weeks. Long enough for us to.. get started.”

“Started on what?” Scott asks, perking up just a little at her mention of their apparent progress. “The Hyperion, or Meridian?”

“They’re one and the same now. Capital ship, capital city.” Sara tells him, and she smiles again because now the light in Scott’s eyes seems to shine just a little brighter, though that might be her own optimism that she sees. “A home for humanity..”

Scott nods, looking thoughtful as he processes her words in his mind, but then he smiles too, soft but genuine, and Sara feels some of the weight lift off of her chest. She’d spent quite a bit of time over the past few weeks wondering how long it would be before she saw him smiling as frequently as he used to.

“We did it, mom,” he says under his breath, blinking hard and turning away from his sister when his eyes start to brim with emotion, and Sara stays quiet as she gives him a moment to collect himself. Sara actually thinks of their dad in that moment, of what Alec might think about everything that had happened, but Scott held their mother so much closer to his heart.

It doesn’t surprise Sara. Their father was a distant man, there was no denying that, but Sara was always closer to him than Scott had ever been and now that he was gone.. Well, there was no chance of any kind of closure between father and son now, which probably gave her brother that much more reason to keep his memory at a distance.

“Are you okay?” Scott suddenly asks, looking at her once more, and Sara’s gaze darts back over to him. “You and.. SAM?”

There’s something odd in his tone, and Sara’s not sure if it’s suspicion or resentment. Maybe even both.

“Our connection has been restored.” SAM’s voice suddenly speaks up, and she definitely sees a furrow in Scott’s brow, his jaw clenching when he hears the AI’s voice, but the sour expression is gone just as quickly. “I am once again able to help the Pathfinder activate Remnant technology.”

“But does he still need to?” Scott asks, and despite the tension in his voice Sara almost smiles. That was Scott’s disapproving voice, which she hadn’t really heard since their teenage years, back when Sara frequently went on dates or other outings with people that Scott didn’t know very well.

“Not _technically_ ,” Sara shrugs, trying to take things back down to a more casual mood. “I adapted to use Remnant without him, but it’s not advisable.”

“Dr. Carlyle estimates an 80 percent risk of further hemorrhaging.” SAM speaks up again, and Scott says nothing but his shoulders stiffen. Sara wonders briefly if SAM can detect the tension in her brother’s body and voice. She’s almost certain that he can but her AI says nothing about it, and for that Sara is grateful.

“With ’further’ being the alarming part,” Sara continues where SAM left off, and she sees concern flashing in her brother’s eyes now. “For you and me both, Scott.”

“Pathfinder.” SAM suddenly pipes up before Scott can speak again. “The Nexus leaders are waiting for us.”

Sara frowns. She’d been expecting them to call for her sooner or later, but lately it felt like walking away and leaving Scott behind was all she’d been doing since they arrived in Andromeda.

“Go on,” Scott says before she can think of an excuse to have SAM relay back to them, but he just waves a hand at her with another small smile when she opens her mouth to protest. “I bet it’s real important.”

“It always is,” Sara sighs as she stands up from where she’d been sitting on the edge of the bed. She still didn’t want to leave him but she can see that he’s starting to look tired again, like this conversation had sapped away all the energy that his earlier nap had given him. The painkillers still in his system probably weren’t helping either.

 _‘He used to sleep until noon every day back home,’_ she reminds herself inwardly, because it’s easier to think of it as an old habit of his rather than evidence of a slow road to recovery.

“Anyway, I’m pretty sure my pillow’s calling my name and I’d hate to disappoint it,” Scott says, trying to hide a yawn from her as he settles back down onto the bed. It doesn’t work. “Good luck dealing with Tann.”

“I’ll come back and visit again later,” Sara promises. Scott nods back at her but he doesn’t seem very enthused about it, like a part of him doesn’t expect to see her again for a few more days, and it brings a pang of guilt to her chest. But she doesn’t have time to dwell or even address it right now, which only makes her feel worse.

“Say hello to the Tempest crew for me,” Scott calls out as she’s halfway out the door, his voice already slurring a little from the sleep he was slipping into, but it suddenly reminds Sara of an idea she’d had for a long time now.

It seemed like a good plan to her, and it definitely sounded like something that would help his long-term recovery, but for now she’d just have to hold onto the idea, discuss it with the rest of the crew, and of course wait for her brother to be cleared for duty once more.

Still, the thought excites her, and they could definitely make room on the Tempest for two Ryders.

\---

The official process went much smoother than Sara had expected it to. The rest of it.. Well, it probably could’ve gone smoother in comparison.

Dr. Carlyle had finally given Scott a clean bill of health so he was finally released from the medical wing, the Nexus directors had been actively encouraging her to expand her team roster, and, most importantly, Scott had told her during their last visit that if he had to stay on the Hyperion for much longer then he was going to lose his mind.

So Sara filled out the expedited transfer request, signed by both her and her brother, and before the end of the day cycle, Scott Ryder was an official part of the Pathfinder team.

Scott had been so impatient as they waited for the approval to come back, and had looked so eager when she told him the news and led him to the Tempest’s docking bay. She hadn’t expected it to dissolve entirely the second he actually stepped foot onto her ship.

In retrospect, she probably should have made sure that the ship was relatively empty before she brought him into it. The plan was to give him a basic tour and just stay close to answer any questions that might come up as he became familiar with the ship’s layout, to let him set the pace and just make sure he was as comfortable as possible.

They are instead greeted with a small crowd hanging out on the bridge and Scott immediately shrinks back next to her. Suvi and Kallo just look up from their respective seats, offering welcoming smiles but saying nothing. Liam, Vetra, and Peebee all turn their collective attention on Scott, and Sara wants to kick herself; she’d been so preoccupied with actually getting Scott’s transfer approval that she’d forgotten to tell her crew that he’d be joining them today.

“Well now, look who decided to finally join this motley crew of ours,” Peebee speaks up first, settling a hand on her hip, and though her tone and smile are surprisingly welcoming Scott just gives the group a curt nod, and Sara thinks she sees him draw back a little more.

“Hey, we’re not that motley, at least compared to Raeka’s crew.” Liam speaks up before he steps forward, beaming as he holds a hand out towards Scott. “Name’s Liam Kosta, and don’t listen to Peebee. We’re all certified badasses; it even says so in Pathfinder Hall.”

“Uh, right..” Scott replies, clearing his throat quietly as he shakes Liam’s hand briefly, and Sara sees her friend’s smile falter just a little as he draws his hand back.

“’Certified badasses’ isn’t the exact phrasing they used, but the sentiment’s still there,” Vetra adds as she approaches Scott, with Peebee following close behind her. “Vetra Nyx, at your service, and this trash-talker next to me is Peebee. Welcome to the Tempest, Scott.”

“Hey! Trash-talking and fact-stating are two different things,” Peebee says to Vetra, and Sara’s not sure if she’s genuinely interested in their conversation or if she’s actually trying to divert some of the attention away from Scott. “Plus Raeka’s squad has two krogan. We’re only half as badass.”

“Please.. A pair of krogan is nothing compared to a pair of Ryders.” Liam replies with a grin, folding his arms over his chest. Sara smiles at that but Scott just shifts his weight, saying nothing.

“Don’t let Drack hear you say that. Those are his scouts that joined her crew.” Vetra says in a playful but warning tone before she turns her attention back to Scott. “So you’re officially joining us now, huh? Going to help us muck out the last of the Kett still lingering around?”

“Um, yeah,” Scott replies, his eyes darting between everyone gathered around but they don’t linger on anyone for more than a few seconds, and Sara can see Kallo and Suvi exchange a quick but knowing look. “I’m Scott Ryder, Sara’s brother, but uh.. you guys obviously know that.” He chuckles but it sounds painfully forced to Sara’s ears, and her earlier excitement is dissipating. She knows he’s still recovering but this isn’t the Scott she’d grown up with.

Scott always had a way of connecting with people so easily, a trait they both shared, but with Sara it always seemed to be a matter of her earning someone’s respect. With Scott, he seemed to strive for friendship first, and even if it didn’t work out immediately, most people that Sara knew at least had developed some level of fondness for him.

 _‘He’s like a puppy in a human body,’_ one of her friends back in the Milky Way had said once after meeting him for the first time, and while it wasn’t a very eloquent comparison it was definitely a fitting one. He was warm and welcoming most of the time, calmer and more respectful when he needed to be, but no matter what, Scott’s entire being was always felt whenever he was present. She’d envied it a little growing up, the way he formed bonds so easily, and right now she really misses it.

He’s quiet now and shrinking away from her friends, looking and sounding nothing like his usual self. She hadn’t seen him acting like this since they were little kids back on the Citadel..

When they were in the privacy of their home Scott was as loud and rambunctious as she was, and they’d spend hours every day pretending to be Alliance soldiers, going out to explore new worlds and meet new aliens. But then whenever they stepped outside, he seemed to lose all of that curiosity and boldness, and instead spent most of the time hiding behind their mother’s legs, his small hand clinging so tightly to hers, and he’d only speak up when he wanted Sara to tell mom that he was hungry or that he’d seen something in the shops that he wanted to look at.

It had always been weird and frustrating to her younger self, seeing the way that Scott would withdraw into himself like that, but Sara still relayed Scott’s messages faithfully, and always made sure none of the other kids bothered him when they went to play at the park. She was his big sister after all, and maybe it was only by a minute but it was a duty she’d taken very seriously.

Of course, he’d grown out of that odd habit by the time he was a teenager, but Sara had thought the days of a shy, nervous Scott were long gone, and right now she can’t say that she’s missed it one bit.

“What do you say, Scott? You up for it?” Sara suddenly hears Liam saying, and she blinks as she returns her focus to the conversation, inwardly cursing herself. She doesn’t know what they’d been talking about but Peebee, Vetra, and Liam are all looking expectantly at Scott, and she suddenly feels Scott stepping away from her.

“M-Maybe later, I wanted to look around the ship a bit first,” Scott mutters, moving around the group and towards the doorway of the bridge, and he gives them all a shaky smile before he shoots his sister a quick but pleading look. Sara steps forward, waving a hand to get her crew’s attention, and from the corner of her eye she sees Scott darting out of the bridge as soon as their gazes shift over to her.

Everyone still notices his sudden departure, of course, but none of them move to go after Scott and instead just exchange confused looks amongst each other.

“Guess he really didn’t want to play poker,” Liam finally says with an uncertain laugh, and beside him Peebee just shrugs, crossing her arms with a noncommittal grunt.

“Was it something we said?” Vetra asks, her mandibles briefly twitching in concern, and Sara just sighs quietly as she shakes her head.

“No, I just don’t think he was expecting a welcoming party,” Sara tells them before giving them all a small, apologetic smile. “Don’t take it personally, guys. He’s still getting back on his feet after everything that happened with the Archon.”

“A heads up about him coming would’ve been nice,” Peebee replies, though her tone is surprisingly gentle, “Though I guess compared to a firefight against the Archon and his pet Architect, that wasn’t a terrible first impression.”

“He’ll get better.” Sara says, though she’s not entirely certain if she’s speaking to herself or to her friends. “Scott just needs a little time right now..”

She eventually finds Scott, chatting in the med bay with Lexi, and she gives him the tour of the ship but it’s not the fun, enthusiastic thing she’d expected it to be. He actually asks her no questions as she leads him from room to room, and they bump into Drack, Jaal, and Gil along the way but once again the greetings between them are all short and awkward.

Well, it was just day one of Scott being on the Tempest, and everyone had first day jitters, right? He’d get used to everyone, get back to his old self, and find his feet amongst this ragtag crew that had become her family.

Or at least, Sara hoped so..

\---

Scott doesn’t like SAM anymore.

Before they actually left for Andromeda Scott always seemed to be a little neutral about their father’s AI, accepting the necessity of it despite SAM inadvertently being the reason they felt they had to leave the Milky Way in the first place, and he had even tried to play around with SAM once or twice during the initial conversations, though watching Scott trying to tell an AI a knock-knock joke was far more amusing than the actual joke itself.

But all of that was before Meridian. Before the Archon had captured him and taken control of SAM and his implant. Being forced to channel Meridian’s power had been draining enough but fighting against such control, even with SAM’s help, had exhausted Scott, hurt him, and even nearly killed him.

After that, Scott seemed to have completely lost what little ‘affection’ he had for SAM. He hadn’t done anything as drastic as suggesting his implant be removed, if that was even possible, but Sara notices the way he flinches just a little whenever he hears SAM’s voice, eyes steely and his jaw clenched. She doesn’t know if he actually blamed SAM for what had happened or not, but at the very least he definitely resented his implant now, and maybe even feared it a little.

Sara doesn’t know what to say to make it any better. She still needs SAM, of course, but there was also the fact that Scott didn’t go through everything that Sara had. He hadn’t come to rely on and trust the AI like she did. Her brother at least knew that SAM helped her to interact with the Remnant but he doesn’t know the full extent of his abilities, not like Sara does, and for now it’s probably best to keep it that way. Learning that SAM had once stopped and restarted her heart, even for the sake of saving her and her squad, would’ve just made things a lot worse..

Sara wants to think that he’ll get better. She wants to hope that he’ll accept SAM like he did before, maybe even come to like him again, but she also knows it’ll take time, just like everything else. He needs time to start trusting SAM again, and even time to embrace the rest of the Pathfinder team.

One thing that Sara has come to really regret now is never taking anyone with her when she’d visit Scott in the Cryo Bay, after he woke up from the coma. She couldn’t have predicted the way things went down with Meridian, but if he’d been friends with any of them before being taken by the Archon, well.. He’d probably be further on in his recovery, if nothing else.

She especially wishes he’d known Liam back in the Milky Way. Having a friend from their old life probably would’ve made his transition onto the Tempest much easier, and if there was anyone on the ship who could put someone so nervous at ease, it was Liam. He was in crisis response, after all. He knew how to deal with people suffering from traumas like Scott was, and she thinks a bond with him would’ve been good for her brother.

But Scott hadn’t known Liam, hadn’t shown much interest yet in changing that, and it breaks Sara’s heart a little because if Scott had been with her from the very beginning, she knows that he would’ve won everyone over within a couple days, even faster than she did.

Scott was friendly and open-minded, always joking but taking such care to never offend or step out of bounds with anyone. He was goofy, and a bit juvenile at times, but he still knew when to take things seriously, always seemed to know just what to say to make someone feel better, and his infectious smiles came so easily that it was damn near impossible for someone not to like him.

Hell, he’d even won over that turian who worked for C-Sec, despite how often that particular guy seemed to catch them in the middle of their mischief.

 _‘Hey, if Vakarian loves me how bad can I be?’_ Scott used to say, grinning in spite of the unimpressed scowl that Captain Bailey always gave them as he contacted their mother for the umpteenth time.

Actually, considering how much trouble they got into back in their Citadel days, maybe it was best that he hadn’t had Liam around to be roped into those shenanigans.

But after Liam, Sara thinks that Jaal would’ve been the easiest for him to win over, and though letting the three of them run around together probably wasn’t the best long-term idea, she’d give anything for it to just happen now. A fast friendship with Liam would’ve quickly drawn their Angaran teammate’s attention, and she has no doubts that the pair of them would have easily lured Scott into going along with their odd hobbies.

Speaking of odd hobbies, Peebee would have been an easy one for him to win over too. It had been a lengthy process for Sara to fully earn the asari’s loyalty but she feels that it would’ve been a whole lot easier if she was as accepting and earnest as Scott was, traits that Peebee seemed to value. Plus, Scott would have loved Zap and Poc even more than she did.

Vetra would’ve really liked Scott too, but part of Sara that believes he actually would’ve been closer with Sid, they seemed to have a little more in common at least, but winning over Vetra would mean that Drack wouldn’t be far behind. Considering Scott’s childhood fascination with krogan, Sara has no doubts that her brother would’ve pestered the old battle master for hours to hear his various war stories. Drack would’ve grumbled every time and say that he had much better things to do, but wouldn’t have left Scott with a single unanswered question.

She laments the lost potential of bringing Scott out on missions with her friends, but even then it wasn’t just her squad that he avoided. Scott had such a terrible poker face but Gil would’ve liked him anyway, especially given how similar their senses of humor were, and he probably would’ve gotten along well with Suvi and Kallo, coming to really enjoy their company and conversation even if he didn’t have much in common with the pair of them.

But Scott didn’t seek them out either, and kept coming up with plausible but consistent excuses whenever anyone tried to invite him to spend a little time together, and it’s hard for Sara to see him like this.

The Tempest squad and crew had all been drawn to her in their own way but it was as a Pathfinder and a leader first before she grew close enough with any of them to call them her friends, but with Scott she wonders if it would’ve been the other way around. He would’ve fit right in with their dysfunctional little family, had things started off differently.

They probably would’ve seen Scott as a friend first, but then he would have proven himself to be the competent leader that Sara knew he could be, earning their respect as both a trustworthy companion and a reliable Pathfinder, and easily cementing a deep loyalty to him. It all feels so tragic now, to see him pulling away from the people he could come to love like she did, the people that could bring him back to the way he once was.

She continues to think it all over as the days slowly go by, especially whenever she saw Scott lingering alone somewhere, and in hindsight it’s pretty ironic that the one person that Sara hadn’t even consider in all of this was actually the one that started to bring her brother back.

\---

“Good morning, Scott,” Cora says to her brother as he approaches the table, and part of Sara is still processing the fact that he was actually joining them for breakfast. The last time she’d seen him was late last night, when he mentioned wanting to make some coffee and she’d made a joke about him being ‘ever the night owl’, though they both knew that he was just taking advantage of the late hour and an empty galley.

Or maybe it hadn’t been empty, since there were definitely multiple mugs in the sink when Sara woke up, and they hadn’t been there during dinner. Sara looks back and forth between Cora and her brother and.. she thinks she sees something pass between them.

““Morning, Cora,” Scott replies, his tone so casual compared to how it’s been lately, and Sara suddenly finds herself smiling because now Scott is smiling too, a sincere and familiar look in his eyes, and she watches him settle down into the seat beside Cora before she turns her attention back to Peebee and Suvi.

“Well what do you know.. I can’t say I expected that,” Suvi remarks quietly, watching the pair beside them as well as she sips from her cup of tea, and Peebee just scoffs, giving Cora and then Scott a brief glance of her own before she shakes her head.

“Should someone warn Scott that Cora’s got the personality of an ancient asari handbook?” Peebee asks, shrugging when Sara just gives her a stern look. “What? I’m just saying that going by your stories, Scott’s a fun guy and loves being around fun people. You can say ‘opposites attract’ all you want but I’m pretty sure there’s a limit.”

“I don’t know, I think it’s pretty sweet,” Suvi speaks up with another smile, “Besides, the best thing about ‘opposites attract’ is that it often times means they’re bringin’ out the best in each other, and even if we’re readin’ too much into it, it’s still nice to see Scott makin’ a friend.”

“Then hopefully it stops at ‘friends’, we really don’t need them becoming that gross couple that just stands around making lovey-dovey eyes at each other, right?” Peebee looks towards Sara, clearly seeking out some support, and she groans as Sara just shrugs back at her with a soft smile of her own. “Oh no, Sara, not you too..”

Suvi was right. If nothing else it seemed that Scott was finally taking the first steps to making a friend with one of her squad mates, and maybe they really were reading too much into it but Sara finds herself hoping that that’s not the case.

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You probably already know this if you've made it to this chapter, but the last segment takes place during the ending scene in chapter 12.  
> And of course I had to throw in a little love for the original trilogy~


	23. "A Kiss To Distract."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Scott/Cora  
> Prompt: 17. 'A kiss to distract.'
> 
> Ahh, how I missed throwing these two into random fluff..

  
\-----

Not that Cora was ever the first one to step forward and fill a silence with idle chatter, but Scott still couldn’t help but think that she was being unusually quiet. She hadn’t said a word since they’d left the bridge of the ship, not even speaking up at the curt comments that Peebee had made about the current state of the asari and their ark, and the fact that she seemed to be avoiding his eye contact only made him worry about her more.

“You okay, Cora?” Scott asks quietly as he approaches his second, and he keeps his voice low so that Peebee wouldn’t overhear them, but then again their friend was currently lounging on one of the seats on the opposite end of the tram, so attempting to eavesdrop was probably the last thing on Peebee’s mind.

“‘Pathfinders take risks’,” Cora replies quietly, quoting his own words back to him, but there’s a sadness in her voice now that wasn’t there before when she was reciting lines from her battle manuals to reassure herself and those around her. “They really do. Matriarch Ishara, your father, even Barro on the Turian Ark. We roll the dice, and..”

She trails off with a soft sigh and now Scott understands why he can hear that hint of fear in her voice. He walks over to her, settling a hand against her lower back and Cora leans into his touch, still not meeting his gaze but taking the physical comfort from him nonetheless.

“Cora,” Scott says again, reaching up with his free hand to gently trace his fingers along her jawline, gently urging her to look at him, and when she finally does he gives her a small, comforting smile. “Nothing’s going to happen to me.”

“I didn’t say that it would,” Cora replies, her tone almost defensive but there’s just not enough strength behind it to sound convincing, and Scott justs gives her a pointed look until she sighs again. “I’m sorry, Scott. We need to focus on saving the asari right now, not wasting time while I worry about every little thing that could go wrong.”

“Hey, someone’s got to keep a level head around here, and since you’re on a squad with me and Peebee I guess it kind of defaults to you,” Scott says, trying for a joke to see if he could make her laugh. It gets him a small smile from her at least and he’s always happy to see that, but it’s also clear that it doesn’t do much else to alleviate her current worries. “C’mon, Cora. What could happen to me when I’ve got someone like you watching my back?”

“About a dozen different things come to mind and none of them are pleasant,” Cora replies promptly, but she turns towards him anyway and reaches out to grasp one of his hands, giving it a gentle squeeze. “But maybe you’re right.. We’ve made it this far through everything else, and we’ve got too many people counting on us right now to lose focus.”

“That’s my girl,” Scott grins, leaning forward to press a warm kiss to her lips that Cora is quick to reciprocate, and Scott slides his hand up from her lower back to between her shoulders to pull her closer to him. Cora hums against his lips, the hand that wasn’t holding his moving to rest against his hip.

“Trying to distract me?” Cora asks with a playful accusation in her tone but she definitely sounds distracted as she leans into another kiss, pressing herself a little closer to him and Scott always loves how easy it is for them to get lost in one another.

“Maybe,” Scott replies before his lips meet hers once more, and yeah, he’s _definitely_ trying to pull her thoughts away from her worries and fears because he couldn’t risk that distracting her during the mission, especially since she could get hurt as a result of her mind being on him during a fight. He’d never forgive himself for that, and he also knew that Cora would blame herself completely if the mission were compromised in any way as a result.

He brushes the thought from his mind to return the focus to her. Their kisses are tender and slow, not trying to build any intent or heat because they’re still in the middle of a mission after all, but there’s less worry in Cora’s eyes when she finally pulls away from him, and the smile that comes to her face seems much more relaxed.

“We’ve got this, Cora.” Scott assures her with another smile. “Nothing on this ship that we can’t face together..”

“Thank you, Scott,” Cora says as she leans into him, their noses gently bumping when Scott leans down to nuzzle his forehead against hers. “You really-”

“Hey, Ryder! Remember that stuff we’re supposed to be doing?” Peebee suddenly calls over to them, and Scott blinks as he realizes that the tram had already stopped and they’d reached their destination. Huh. Guess that was a little more distracting than he’d thought it would be. “Be nauseating later, we’ve got things to do!”

“Let’s go then,” Scott says, but he presses one more quick kiss to Cora’s lips anyway, and draws his hand back from hers because as comforting as her touch is to him his fingers should probably be on the trigger of his assault rifle, especially since they still didn’t know how many kett were on this level of the ark. “The sooner we find those commandos, the better.”

“After you, Pathfinder.” Cora replies, her usual confident tone back now, and though he can practically hear Peebee rolling her eyes behind him Scott still finds himself smiling, a very familiar and welcome warmth burning in his chest as he leads his squad away from the tram and into the Hangar Control sector, ready to face the kett and whatever else this ark had in store for them.

\-----


	24. Late Night Rendezvous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Scott/Cora  
> Prompt: Late Night Rendezvous
> 
> This was for MER Week, the only prompt I actually finished despite starting drabbles for each day. Welp. Title also makes it sound steamy but it's just a little hurt/comfort.

\-----

The coffee’s barely lukewarm in his mug, had probably made hours ago, but Scott drinks it anyway because he needs something to focus on, something to distract his senses. Right now, even the bitter taste of Gil’s too-strong coffee on his tongue is better than nothing.

The galley’s quiet and empty, not surprising considering how late it was, but it also feels like there’s a heavy tension in the air, the kind of somber mood that always seems to follow a loss. The worst part is that the losses weren’t even personal, or at least he hadn’t known the ones that had been left behind, but that hadn’t stopped Drack’s angry words from stinging like hell.

He thought he’d made the right choice.. It was hard, so hard to choose between saving the krogan scouts or saving Pathfinder Raeka, but now there was no undoing the decision he’d made. The Initiative needed another Pathfinder, especially one who wasn’t like him. They needed someone who’d been chosen and trained for this job, not someone who got saddled with it because good old Alec just had to screw him over one last time.

Scott sets the mug down roughly against the table, huffing out a breath. No, that wasn’t fair to think. Maybe he’d never wanted to become the Pathfinder and maybe he did still resent his father for it a little, but he knew it was far more complicated than that..

Still, this is exactly why he’d never wanted to be a leader. Having so many depend on him for survival, and having to make tough calls like this? People were trained to deal with these choices, learned how to live with both the victories and consequences. They were qualified in ways that he wasn’t. Back home all he’d been was a glorified security guard, and even for all the talk of Andromeda being a fresh start for them, Scott had always expected to live in the shadows of his father and Sara. That had suited him just fine too.

Sara was the favored twin for a reason, and if she’d been the one to make this call she sure as Hell wouldn’t be wallowing alone in the middle of the night shift..

He almost jumps when the galley door suddenly hisses open and Scott stiffens, afraid that Drack’s finally come back from the cargo bay to reclaim his usual space, but it’s just Cora, and he feels the tension leave his shoulders as he lets out a breath.

“Did SAM snitch and tell you where I was?” he asks before she can speak, and he sees a hint of a smile on her face as she steps further into the room, the door sliding shut behind her.

“There’s only so many places you can hide on this ship,” Cora replies, and she looks him over for a moment as if to get a read on his mood before she settles down onto the booth beside him, close enough for their shoulders to touch. He presses himself closer, her presence already making him feel better, and when he looks at her he sees the concern in her eyes. “Do you want to talk, Scott?”

“I kinda just want to lie down and pretend that most of yesterday never happened,” Scott replies quietly, adjusting his position to rest his head against Cora’s shoulder before he closes his eyes with a sigh. “Does Drack still hate me?”

“Drack doesn’t hate you,” Cora replies patiently, and Scott feels one of her hands brush against his own. “He’s just upset, and he might not like the call you made but he’ll come around.. He’s old enough to know that being a leader means making a lot of impossible decisions.”

“I left those krogan to die,” Scott says quietly, his brow furrowing. “No, it’s worse.. I left them to the fucking Kett, and who knows what’s happened to them by now..”

“You can look at it like that,” Cora says, shrugging the shoulder that he wasn’t leaning on. “Or you can remind yourself that you left a few behind but managed to save thousands more. You rescued the Salarian Ark, and even brought back another Pathfinder with you.”

Scott just frowns, trying to feel the positives that she was pointing out, and maybe he’s just being hopeful but the heavy weight in his chest seems to lessen, just a little.

“No victory comes without sacrifice, Scott,” Cora continues quietly, “but when the good far outweighs the bad, you just have to take the win and focus on that.”

Scott opens his eyes, tilting his head back just enough to look up at Cora’s face and he gives her a small, shaky smile. “Another reason that you should’ve been the Pathfinder, Cora; you know how to live and learn from shit like this..”

“I’ve just had a little more practice with it,” Cora replies, and Scott settles down again as she leans in to press a kiss to the top of his head. “I know it’s hard to accept that you can’t always save everyone, but blaming yourself won’t bring anyone back, believe me.”

For a moment Scott wonders what kind of experience she’s speaking from, who she’s left behind or lost over the years, but he leaves his questions unspoken. Cora prefers to bring up the past at her own rate and he respects that. So, for now, he brushes aside his personal curiosities.

But he does feel lighter now, weighing her words and trying to accept that what’s done was done. She was right. There was nothing left to do now but accept it and move on. It might not take the lingering hurt away, but it was still a step forward.

“You’re great at pep talks, you know that?” Scott remarks as he sits up to press a kiss to Cora’s cheek before he gives her another smile, soft and far more sincere this time. “Thank you, Cora. I mean it..”

“I know you do, sweetheart,” Cora replies, still holding his hand beneath the table, and eventually the two of them leave the galley to try and get some rest before the day shift starts.

Cora sleeps in his quarters and Scott holds her close, nuzzling his face into the crook of her neck and wondering if, without her, he’d still be moping in the galley right now.

He’s glad he doesn’t know the answer to that question, and sleep comes easily enough thanks to the amazing woman in his arms.

\-----


End file.
